


Who You Gonna Call?

by teamchaosprez



Category: Steven Universe (Cartoon)
Genre: F/F, Other Additional Tags to Be Added, Paranormal Investigators, Past Abuse, Stalking, abusive jasper
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2016-09-27
Updated: 2017-02-21
Packaged: 2018-08-17 13:47:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 7
Words: 35,213
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/8146276
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/teamchaosprez/pseuds/teamchaosprez
Summary: This case started out personal, but as it develops Lapis Lazuli finds herself confronted with the demons of her past more directly than she ever would have liked.





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> ok so this first chapter is basically just setting things up. i plan for the chapters of this fic to be abt 4k or 5k words long each?? so they'll be kinda lengthy. i wanna get this done before halloween so we'll see. this is kinda a break from my other fics, which will continue updating eventually, don't worry. happy spooping.

Maybe this was exceedingly twisted and more than a little assholeish of her to think, but the moment Lapis Lazuli got the news that Jasper Brecciate had died, she was relieved.

It wasn’t that Lapis had ever wished death on her ex fiancee, of course, because she hadn’t. She was a tiny woman full of anger and sadness and so much bitterness that it scared even her, but she wasn’t an emotionless sadist, and… some part of her did care about Jasper. But in the three years since she had broken off their engagement due to the relationship being excessively toxic and pretty goddamn abusive, Lapis had endured call after call that was either sugar coated with announcements of affection or twisted with dark threats and poisonous lies. She’d tracked her down through two phone number changes, and then started calling her work number. It was exhausting.

And even aside from the phone calls, there was the stalking. Lapis had gone from living in her own fairly nice studio apartment to living with her parents, and that hadn’t chased her off. She’d been forced to move to an entirely different town to live in the suburbs with her best friend, Peridot, a year after the breakup - and she supposed that was the one good thing to come out of the entire mess. Peridot was a good roommate; understanding, supportive, and… of course, adorable.

Three months after moving in together, they were dating, and the year and nine months that had followed were the happiest of Lapis’ life. She’d had her doubts at first, having come out of a relationship filled with being beaten and sexually abused every time she let her temper loose and snapped at her hulking fiancee, but Peridot was such a stark difference, and they were so good for one another - they learned and moved forward together, they collaborated, they helped.

In fact, she dared say that she’d never been so emotionally stable after living with crippling depression for fifteen years and being broken and traumatized from her relationship with Jasper and various other components. Yes, there were always hard times and dips - and the same could be said for Peridot and her anxiety - but they weren’t as frequent or as long lasting as when she had lived alone or with Jasper, or when Peridot had been entirely on her own in dealing with common adult problems and an overbearing mother that liked to smother her.

Jasper’s mark was hard to forget, but by the time she had been dead for two months, Lapis had completely tucked the knowledge into the back of her mind, as good as forgotten. At the very least, the knowledge that the bigger woman couldn’t hurt her anymore was something to ease her paranoia. In fact, by the time the air turned cool and the leaves began changing color, Lapis was too busy to even care.

October had settled in, with its spooky atmosphere and chilly breezes. Jack-o-lanterns had started appearing on doorsteps, candy started going on sale in preparation for hordes of excited trick-or-treaters, Halloween stores opened their doors, and horror movies were expected every time she went channel surfing. The month was definitely Lapis’ favorite, and her affection for the feel of October and the holiday of Halloween had only increased tenfold since she and Peridot had started their business.

They were paranormal investigators. People called them when things went bump in the night and no other explanation could be found. Their job was to clear out the building or graveyard or wherever the haunting was taking place, camp out overnight, and gain solid video and audio evidence - and to determine whether or not the presence was harmful or just some spirit looking to have a little fun. If the ghost was hurting people and refused to stop, then they’d probably have to recommend the family to an exorcist, but for the most part their job consisted of figuring out what was going on and explaining it. There were technological portions of it that Peridot could enjoy, and a risk and the exploration of the unknown for Lapis - the both of them enjoyed it thoroughly, and while it had been a bit of a difficulty getting started (they’d lived in a van for a month and couldn’t afford a Christmas tree the previous year), the business was now pretty well known at least in the Delmarva peninsula and generated a decent income that they split between them.

Especially around Halloween. People got spooked more easily with the horror industry booming, and it was incredibly good for business. A good portion of the jobs they took on were false leads, which was fairly disappointing, but hey, it was still good money, and Lapis had in mind exactly what she was going to save up for using the half that was distributed to her. She’d do an entire year of false leads for it if need be, even if it annoyed the shit out of Peridot.

* * *

 

It was one o’clock in the morning when a cheerful ringtone sounded right next to Lapis’ ear, startling her and making her sit up quickly as she grabbed onto her phone and instinctively threw it across the room as if that would kill it. The moment of drama didn’t seem to affect Peridot whatsoever, as the small blonde was still fast asleep on the opposite end of the bed, pressed against the wall so much that Lapis was almost jealous of the cold painted plaster.

Within a few moments she had realized what was going on and shifted to her feet, stretching with a yawn before walking over to her cell phone and picking up the device. A squint at the caller ID told her that it wasn’t one she had saved, but that it was aimed for her work number. That meant that there was somebody requesting their services, and while normally she would be excited by that, it was one in the goddamn morning and she wanted to sleep. It was  _ well _ before work hours.

Still, that meant it was probably urgent, and one of Lapis’ great flaws was her constant wish to help people, even if her own sanity was sacrificed for it. The young woman let out a slight yawn, the rush of adrenaline caused by being woken up so suddenly wearing off and being replaced by the heavy weight of sleep. She swiped the screen to answer as she walked out of the bedroom, not wanting to face the hell that would come for her if she woke Peridot up. “This is Lazuli & Olivine Paranormal Investigations, Lapis speaking. How can I help you?”

The words came out mechanically, but she couldn’t help but be embarrassed by the heavy slur that came with having just woken up. That was silly, she told herself; she shouldn’t be embarrassed about being tired. It was one o’clock in the morning, for fuck’s sake.

How many times was she going to repeat the time in her head? It wasn’t like the stranger at the other end of the line could hear her. Lapis frowned slightly and leaned against the hallway’s wall, ready to think through it, but before she could contemplate much the slightly rushed and panicked voice of her younger and favorite cousin answered her.

“Lapis?” Steven spoke far too loudly, sounding way too awake. He was fourteen; he should be asleep by now, Christ’s sake, he had school in the morning (and Lapis couldn’t believe that was what she was worried about with the tone he was using. “Sorry for calling your work number, it’s just a lot easier to remember and I’m not on my phone right now, I left it on my bed. I’m at Ruby and Sapphire’s. Something’s going on at the beach house and I think it’s something ghosty.”

“Can you explain what’s going on?” the woman asked slowly as she walked into the kitchen, sliding into one of the seats at the counter and reaching for the pad and pen she kept next to her cell phone charger at all times, just in case. Steven was a responsible kid, and she knew that he wouldn’t call her this late (or early?) if it wasn’t an emergency, but… she’d spent many a night at the beach house during her teen years, and she was pretty sure that she’d never experienced anything paranormal. She was skeptical, albeit concerned for her cousin’s wellbeing.

“Well, about an hour ago I was woken up by footsteps walking up to the landing, and, you know, at first I thought it was Lion so I just ignored it,” he spoke quickly, and it was a little difficult for Lapis to scrawl down notes based on what he was saying. “But a moment later I felt big hands around my ankles and they tugged me so hard I almost fell off the end of the bed. I was kinda freaked out but I didn’t really think it meant anything so I got up and started walking downstairs and the hands pushed me down. I’m not hurt, so don’t worry about it. I ran to Ruby and Sapphire’s as fast as I could. Amethyst, Pearl, and Garnet are all out of town until tomorrow evening.”

Huh. Lapis had never heard of a ghost that skipped moving things around and just went for the physical contact. It couldn’t be a new spirit, then, but she couldn’t figure out for the life of her how it had gotten into her cousin’s house. To her knowledge, nobody had died there recently. “Steven, did you check for any intruders? I need you to make sure, because I--”

“Nobody got in! I know I always leave the door unlocked, but seriously, nobody was in the house! I looked behind me after I was pushed, and there was nobody there, I promise.” He almost sounded like he was about to cry. Lapis swallowed dryly. Her cousin was a tough kid. He didn’t spook easy. She still wasn’t convinced, but she loved Steven like a little brother, and it hurt her to hear him like this. “Lapis, please, I’m  _ begging _ you to come down here and check it out. I’ll - I’ll even pay you double price! Just…”

“You’re not paying me anything,” she interrupted, putting her hand out in front of her as if he was talking to her in person. Lapis sighed heavily and discarded her pen back on the counter before brushing a hand through her hair. “Steven, I’m really sorry, but this is really sudden and I’m a bit skeptical. Could you stay with Ruby and Sapphire for the next couple nights and have Pearl stay in the house alone tomorrow night? Maybe with Garnet? Have them call me if they experience anything weird? I mean, it’s not like I don’t want to come see you, and I would do  _ anything _ to help, but you live six hours away, and that’s not a drive I can just tug Peridot into based on something that could easily have been a robber. I wouldn’t even get there until well after sunrise.” Lapis sighed once more before tilting her chair back and watching the stars out the kitchen window. “If there’s something paranormal going on, I promise we’ll be there as soon as possible. And no, you’re not paying anything if it does end up being a ghost. You’re family, so I’m not charging you.”

Silence followed on the opposite end for several more seconds, and by the time Steven spoke again, it was with a sigh and a dejected “Fine.” The two cousins exchanged their goodbyes, and at one thirty in the morning, the phone call was ended.

Lapis felt guilty. Really, really guilty, for brushing Steven off and refusing him her service. She wasn’t as sleepy as she had been when she picked up, but she was certainly twice as tired and felt at least three times as heavy. She stood up and stretched with a yawn before leaving her cell phone on the counter in the kitchen and walking back to the bedroom, collapsing in bed next to her girlfriend and tugging Peridot as close as possible before sleep overtook her once more.

* * *

 

“My cousin thinks he had a run in with a malicious ghost last night.”

The comment was spoken as casually as possible as Lapis watched her girlfriend change. The blonde had her back turned to her as she struggled to clasp a bra, but as soon as the older of the two had spoken, Peridot twisted her head around to face her and frowned.

“Steven’s never had anything paranormal happen at his house before,” the nerd replied, finally managing to get the underwear on properly before reaching for one of the black tank tops strewn about her dresser. “What did he say happened? Is there a possibility that it could have been just, I dunno, some pipes creaking or whatever? Did Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl say anything?” All questions, as was the standard every time Lapis took a call. When Peridot took on jobs, the bluenette had a tendency not to ask anything, because her girlfriend was  _ very _ thorough and no stone probably went unturned.

“He said that it was a pair of big hands that almost dragged him off the bed then pushed him down the stairs, and it was bad enough that he ran to Garnet’s moms’ house for the night. I told him that it was probably just a burglar or something and that he should have Pearl and Garnet stay in the house tonight, and that if something happens with them then he should call again and we’ll be there tomorrow night to check it out.” She shrugged and stretched out in order to grab her girlfriend’s waist before the top could be pulled on, dragging Peridot close and pressing her lips against her cheek. “I’m sure it’s nothing, though. He’s a little shaken up, but he’s perfectly fine.”

“I’m surprised you’re not more worried,” the blonde responded, disgruntled, and tried to squirm away from Lapis’ grasp only to find that she wasn’t going anywhere - she admitted defeat with a sigh and shifted, turning to face the older woman. “I mean, somebody broke into your favorite little cousin’s house. The only family left that you actually enjoy the company of, and he could’ve died last night - you’re acting like it’s no big deal.”

“Well, it was one in the morning when he called me,” Lapis shrugged, leaning back slightly so that she was slumped a bit against the headboard, “and now I’ve got a beautiful half naked woman in my arms. I’m either in shock or distracted, I’ve long confirmed that he’s fine, and I have some other things on my mind.” A devilish smirk appeared on the bluenette’s face only momentarily before her lips were on Peridot’s neck, teasing the warm skin there and grazing with her teeth just in the way that she knew would get the younger woman worked up.

“Lapis, I’m getting ready,” the blonde chastised, gently flicking the top of her head - but from the tone of her voice, barely restraining something - a laugh or a groan - and the flush appearing on her pale cheeks, Lapis could tell rather easily that she wasn’t nearly as put off as she was trying to pretend to be. “This just isn’t fair. You can’t seduce me first thing in the morning!” she crowed indignantly, but if she really wanted to get away she would flat out say no or push her off. They’d been together a long time, and been friends since they were in their senior year of high school - Lapis had been through that situation before more than once, so she knew how it worked.

Peridot may have been small, but she was a force to be reckoned with, and nobody particularly wanted to provoke her. She may have been not even five feet tall, but she could lift computer equipment heavier than what Lapis even had the capability to push, and Jesus, did she know how to yell somebody into deafness if they could overpower her. Everybody seemed to cower away from the young blonde, from creepy guys at parties to customers that wanted to stiff them. The older woman was more in awe of her than she liked to admit, and admired her greatly.

“We don’t have any appointments today and neither of us have any other jobs besides freelance. You’re all mine for the day, Olivine, so why don’t we have a little fun with our free time?” A soft peck was pressed against her girlfriend’s lips before Lapis backed off slightly, hoping that Peridot would solidify her willingness by actually asking for it. Though she tried to be dominating, Lapis was rather shy and usually indirect when it came to asking for consent. “Besides, I’m pretty sure I seduced you… almost two years ago. I don’t think you can seduce someone more than once.”

The blonde rolled her eyes, but moved forward once more in order to catch Lapis’ lips in a searing kiss that she couldn’t help but melt into. “Well, Lazuli, you find more ways to seduce me every single day,” Peridot responded in a tone far smoother than Lapis had expected, making the bluenette blush thickly. Before she even could process what was going on, their positions had been flipped. Not that she was complaining, of course.

Their morning was a blur of sweaty bodies, gentle touches, passionate whispers, and… generally, affection and love, even after they were both exhausted and decided that they were done for the day. The afternoon and the evening were peaceful following a nap spent curled up together; laundry was washed, Wii remotes had very nearly been thrown across the room, cheap meals had been eaten, and at the end of the day, the both of them were content and happy, ready to sleep and face the next day when it finally arrived.

Peace made it a little difficult to predict that anything could go wrong.

* * *

 

At four in the morning, both of their cell phones went off simultaneously, startling both women into a state of forced awakeness, and poor Peridot very nearly fell off the bed. Quick glances at the caller IDs told a thousand words; Pearl was calling Lapis’ phone and Garnet was calling Peridot’s. The two women shared a glance filled with dread before Lapis answered her phone, holding the device to her ear - for a moment, all she could hear was panicked wheezing and footsteps. Something was wrong - something was definitely wrong.

“What’s up?” she commented after a few moments of listening to Pearl freak out before the older woman was suddenly shouting in her ear. Lapis flinched and held the phone away from her head as her friend frantically rambled - thankfully, after a few moments she seemed to get further away, and the bluenette was able to put the device back against her ear as Garnet took over.

“Steven was right,” the British woman spoke calmly, perhaps too calmly for the situation that was apparently at hand. “There is a malicious non-human entity in that house - and you know it must be true if I’m the one saying it.”

Silently, Lapis had to agree; Garnet was very sensible and level headed, quite a bit like Sapphire in that aspect. She sighed heavily, internally scolding herself for taking so long to respond to Steven’s franticness with any sort of belief; ghosts and demons were ten times more dangerous than burglars. What if he’d been hurt? She had to take a deep breath and push these thoughts to the back of her mind; she was just being reasonable, she reminded herself. There was no reason to fall into a pit of self blame and self hatred again. The kid hadn’t been hurt aside from a bruise.

“Okay,” the young woman spoke as she nodded, wrapping one hand around Peridot’s wrist as she walked quickly out of their bedroom and into the kitchen, notepad and pen at the ready as she balanced the phone against the side of her face with her shoulder. “Could you please explain to me calmly and slowly what happened so I can take notes? In other words, please don’t let Pearl back on the line.” A cringe worthy attempt at humor to lighten the mood. She really needed to stop doing that.

“It started immediately after we started getting ready for bed, but we didn’t really notice anything at first, and what we did notice we decided to ignore because it wasn’t really a big deal. The door to the rest of the house started opening and closing by itself,” Garnet began slowly, and as she detailed some basic haunting happenings - some items lifting, cupboards opening, faucets turning on and off - Lapis scribbled down notes in her pad. Yes, those were definitely signs of a newer haunting, so why had Steven experienced something so major on the first night?

As the one-sided conversation continued, though, Lapis took note of Garnet’s voice beginning to sound more grim as she continued to talk, and the bluenette couldn’t help but chew her lower lip. Glass breaking, doors slamming so hard their hinges were damaged, hair being pulled, Pearl being pushed down and Garnet having  _ attempts _ to push her down made. Those were some higher level happenings - at least nobody had anything lethally heavy or sharp thrown at them, Lapis supposed. “Pearl became too frightened and started to have a panic attack, so we needed to leave the house. We’re heading over to my mum and ma’s place right now.”

The paranormal investigator sighed heavily and massaged her temples, eyes closed. Whatever was happening in that house, it was rather dangerous and she was glad that the inhabitants of the beach house had reached out for her - she could be a bit bitter towards Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl sometimes for the way she’d been treated back in high school, but they were her  _ friends, _ and since they were Steven’s family she supposed that they were hers too. “Alright, sounds pretty severe. Peridot and I will be there sometime in the morning to make sure we gather video and audio evidence so we can get ahold of someone that will cleanse the house for you. We’re leaving as soon as we’ve gathered our equipment and we’ll stay in the house from about an hour after we get to you until tomorrow morning.”

“Sounds good to me, but you should get your rest if you need it,” Garnet responded in a tone that might have been cold to most, but Lapis had known her long enough to detect the small amount of worry and guilt underneath. Did she feel bad that she couldn’t protect her family? “See you in the morning.”

“See you in the morning. Try to get some sleep, and maybe let Steven know we’re coming,” Lapis spoke with a nod as if the older woman could see her before ending the call and putting her pen down on the counter, the phone next to it. As soon as she had turned to walk down the hall and get dressed, Peridot had snatched up her notes and began furiously reading them, green eyes settled into a squint and a frown tugging at the edges of her lips. Shit. Lapis had forgotten about her.

“Lapis, this is way more advanced than what we’re capable of handling,” the younger woman spoke quickly, almost as if in a panic, waving the notepad in her girlfriend’s face. “Why couldn’t you have referred them to more experienced investigators? One of us could be seriously hurt or injured by this thing, and I personally would love it if we both made it to thirty,” Peridot then tossed the notepad to the side before clinging to Lapis, an almost crushing grip administered around the older woman’s waist. The bluenette grunted slightly, but returned the embrace, gently running her fingers through her girlfriend’s hair and trying to be comforting and encouraging.

“Everything’s gonna be fine. We’re professionals, we’ve trained for this - we have plenty of equipment and we’ve done plenty of cases. If things get too bad, we’ll bail and review what we have and immediately find an exorcist, okay? I promise.” Lapis gently brushed her fingers against Peridot’s cheek, giving her a gentle and affectionate kiss on the lips. “Besides, I told Steven we wouldn’t charge him, but now that Pearl and Garnet have seen the evidence we can mooch their money. We could even do double price if we wanted to, Pearl doesn’t think we’re real professionals, she doesn’t know our usual rates and wouldn’t notice.”

Peridot snorted and gently pushed her face, making Lapis back away a couple of steps with a snicker. “You’re a horrible person,” the blonde commented before turning on her heel and walking away down the hallway - she walked past their bedroom, so the older of the two knew without being told that she’d been convinced. “Get dressed while I move all the equipment we need to the kitchen. I don’t think Pearl would be very amused if you showed up in front of the beach house butt naked.”

Lapis rolled her eyes, but she had to agree. “Okay, but I’m taking everything out to the van,” she responded as she ruffled the younger woman’s hair and backed up down the hall. “And don’t try to move all the tripods at once again, Dot, those things are heavier than you think they are. They’re the same weight as last time. And the time before. And the time before.” Peridot stuck out her tongue in response, and the bluenette couldn’t help but laugh as she slipped into their bedroom and closed the door.

It wasn’t until the wooden barrier was in place between herself and her girlfriend that Lapis allowed herself to slide to the ground with her head in her hands.

No matter what she tried to tell herself that was actually reasonable and logical, she couldn’t help but be mad at herself for having even the slightest hint of skepticism when Steven told her his story. The kid had never been anything but honest with her, and he wouldn’t have called if he thought it was a robber, so she should have gone immediately before she threw Pearl and Garnet into the line of danger. That aside, her cousin lived in fucking Beach City. Nothing dangerous or suspicious happened in Beach City - at least, not according to her recent memory. As far as she was concerned, it was the safest place in Delaware, according to just about every Google search ever.

Fuck it. That didn’t matter - what was done was done. She needed to pull herself off the ground and get ready to go if she was going to handle this ghost, and god damn it, that was what she fully intended to do. Nobody messed with her cousin and got away with it unscathed, even if they were a ghost that was long dead.


	2. Chapter 2

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The investigation does not, in fact, go well.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> hey so sorry if this fic is poorly paced, i'm not used to writing chapters this long for every update. i'm doing my best though.

Steven insisted on being present throughout the investigation, and Lapis had fought him on it - explaining that if the entity was, in fact, malicious and had harmful intents, then he could be badly hurt, and how on Earth was he supposed to take Connie to the homecoming dance if he had a broken leg? Unfortunately, the boy’d had none of it, and now Lapis was sitting on the couch of the beach house with Peridot and Steven next to her and a deck of cards between them, a rather heated game of Go Fish taking place as if they weren’t in danger of an angry poltergeist that could pop out at any moment.

This was probably expected from Lapis and Peridot, as they did this for a living and the night could get pretty boring if they  didn’t have something idle to do while the cameras rolled to capture any odd happenings between attempts at EVP sessions, and apparently the activity didn’t start the previous couple of nights until twelve thirty; at the moment, it was just a little after ten. Steven, though, had never sat through an investigation before, and was markedly less anxious to go through with everything than someone raised on silly staged ghost hunting shows his entire life should be. The oldest of the three teased him about it consistently, but he shrugged her off with a look of determination.

As another game came to its conclusion, Lapis tossed her cards in the air like they were confetti with a small cackle, clapping her hands together once as Peridot grumbled and passed her a five dollar bill, which was rather discreetly pushed into her breast pocket. “Anyone wanna go for another round?” she asked nonchalantly, laughing and ducking out of the way when a pillow was thrown at her head. She was more competitive than one would expect someone so non confrontational to be - her losses had been taken hard, and she got way too cocky when she won.

It helped that she was comfortable in her current surroundings, too. She’d spent many an hour in the beach house to get away from her home life and away from Jasper, and to babysit Steven whenever she was needed. Her childhood was here, in Beach City and in these walls, and she got the feeling that was most of the reason she wasn’t shivering from anticipation and fear regarding her first actual, possibly malicious poltergeist.

“We’re not playing any more clodding Go Fish,” Peridot declared with a level of angry finality that was actually kind of funny since she was talking about a children’s card game. Lapis started to tease her about it, but got another pillow shoved in her face instead, devolving into a fit of almost hysterical cackles. Several moments passed before the three were enveloped in silence, Steven idly shuffling the cards while Peridot got up to check on the cameras and Lapis checked her Tumblr feed on her phone.

Unfortunately, Steven seemed to think it would be a good idea to bring up an uncomfortable subject. “Did you hear that Jasper died?” he asked in a low voice, and Lapis grimaced. It wasn’t like Peridot didn’t know about the event, so there was really no need for him to be so quiet, in her honest opinion. “I heard Garnet, Amethyst, and Pearl talking about it, but they haven’t told me anything. I think it’s because they’re scared I wasn’t going to be able to handle it.”

“Yeah, I heard,” Lapis responded with a shrug, idly scrolling on her phone in an attempt to distract herself from the subject matter of their conversation. “I know she died, but they didn’t tell me how. I guess I’d know if I actually went to the funeral. Her parents invited me, because I guess I was the only person who knew her well aside from family. I didn’t go, though.”

Steven nodded solemnly, as if he understood - and he probably did. The only person that Lapis had told more about that situation was Peridot, but her cousin was the one that really understood the toll it had taken on her - whereas Peridot lived seven hours away from Beach City and only saw her around holidays before they moved in together, the boy had been nearby and watched her be isolated and closed in, and had helped her get back on her feet after she first moved into her own apartment away from Jasper.

“Well, there are rumors going around about how she died,” Steven spoke hesitantly, as if afraid that she might shatter just from talking about her ex. Lapis wasn’t surprised - Jasper had only been thirty, a few years older than her, and she wasn’t in particularly poor physical health. People didn’t die before they hit seventy very often in Beach City, and when they did it was usually due to tragic but natural events - sickness, drowning, accidentally swallowing something poisonous, childbirth.

“What are they?” she responded after waiting for a few moments, not really sure if she wanted to know but reminding herself that rumors spread around high schools and middle schools very rarely had any sort of truth to them. Still, there was a sort of sick curiosity in her mind; she figured that she might as well have a bit of an idea of how the woman she had been in a relationship with for seven years died.

“Well, the first one is just that she got attacked by one of those big dogs she keeps in her backyard. Whether the dog just got upset by fireworks or something or she provoked it on purpose really depends on who you ask,” Steven replied, and Lapis could tell from the shrug of his shoulders that he didn’t think that was the true one. He then glanced around and leaned a little closer, prompting the older cousin to follow suit. “The other is that she had a breakdown and killed herself. That’s the one I think is true, anyway, it just feels like something Jasper would do. From what you’ve told me, she had a lot of bad things going on and it probably became too much for her.”

Immediately after Steven stopped speaking, the sensor by Lapis’ hip started beeping almost desperately quickly, startling both cousins and prompting Lapis to grab onto the device and glance at the flashing green button, muttering a quiet ‘holy shit’ before pulling her pen and notepad out of the pocket of her hoodie, scribbling down quick notes. “The quicker this device beeps, the closer a ghost is,” she explained quickly after spotting the startled and confused face of her younger cousin. “So according to this, the entity is either  _ right _ next to us or right  _ on top _ of us.”

Knowing from experience that she needed to move quickly, the bluenette reached down to her bag and pulled out a digital voice recorder, quickly pressing the button and signalling for Steven to stay quiet as she pressed the switch on the sensor to turn it off and stop the beeping. Lapis took a small breath before speaking calmly and clearly - she tried to stick with basic questions; “What’s your name,” “Why are you here,” “Tell us how you died,” et cetera. The atmosphere became almost suffocating, several degrees dropping and a heavy air of anger lingering.

While the paranormal investigator was in the middle of trying to ask something about location, she was suddenly overwhelmed by a scathingly, burning hot pressure against the front of her body. All she could really do was gasp slightly from surprise and slight pain, but it wasn’t unbearable or making it difficult to breathe, so all she proceeded to do was sit on the couch and wait for it to end. Damn, she couldn’t  _ wait _ to look through the footage of the night later.

After a few seconds, the heavy heat dissipated and the temperature of the rest of the room returned to normal, the anger disappearing and being replaced by stunned silence that could only follow a fascinating event. Lapis frowned slightly and pulled the sensor back out, flipping the switch to turn it on and staring at the unblinking green light atop it. The ghost was gone - or, at least, it wasn’t anywhere near them anymore.

She couldn’t help but be a little disappointed, but also… excited. She couldn’t wait to capture more and try to figure out what was going on.

* * *

 

Peridot tucked a strand of her messy blonde hair behind her ear as she stood on the tips of her toes, adjusting the zoom and focus of the night vision camera so that the picture it produced would be as clear as possible in the middle of the night. A small, m-shaped frown was settled on her face, as she was lost in the focus of trying to keep her tech perfectly fine tuned to capture any happenings in the master bedroom of the house - she figured that might be a good place to start, since Rose Quartz - Steven’s mother and Lapis’ aunt - had slept in this room the few months she lived here before she died.

The door to the walk in closet stood agape, Peridot having been too lazy to walk over and close it and kind of wanting to see if anything could come out of the gaping, swallowing darkness that occupied the long empty space with only a few of Rose’s favorite dresses left inside. She’d forgotten completely about it as she worked - but as she finally finished setting up the omnidirectional microphone that stood at attention on top of the camera, that open door slammed shut and made her jump with a loud curse word that she would probably be murdered for saying if Pearl were in the room.

She grumbled and walked over to the offending barrier, checking around to ensure that there were no drafts that could have caused it to slam - of course, she knew that was a silly assumption, considering there were no actual windows on this side of the room that could have blown wind quite right. But as a professional, she needed to double check and make sure; her job was to check for ghosts, and if there were any rational explanations that could be written off, she needed to ensure it.

Just as she’d expected; there wasn’t even a light breeze by the door. She waved her hand around to make sure before giving a solemn nod - if there was any wind, it was very light, and it would have needed to be far stronger for her to confirm that it was the draft. Something non human was definitely messing with her - and while most would have felt afraid based on that revelation, Peridot’s heart thrummed with excitement. Lapis might have been the thrill seeker of their dynamic, but she adored finding things out and gathering evidence to the point she sometimes forgot her own safety.

Peridot used one hand to straighten her glasses, poking her head in the closet to see if there was anything to be seen. A low moan came from the back of the closet, hidden behind some dusty formal pink dresses still hanging up where they’d been left fourteen years ago, and the blonde gulped before moving forward, anticipation making her shudder slightly. “Is there somebody in here?” she asked softly, trying to lessen the irritating and grating quality of her voice to be a little quieter and gentler. If this entity - or person, that was a  _ very _ slight possibility - was frightened or sad, making herself appear meek would probably gain its trust.

If it just happened to be angry at the moment, though, she was screwed.

She slowly reached out to part the dresses, sneezing loudly as dust invaded her senses. Damn, somebody should at least clean up every once in awhile - she was surprised that Pearl had let it get this bad. Once her vision unblurred, however, she could see that there was nothing in the corner, and she wasn’t sure if she was more relieved or disappointed that it hadn’t been an apparition. Just a typical disembodied voice, and  _ anybody _ could find one of those. 

Peridot sighed and straightened up, turning on her heel with the full intent of leaving the closet - but before she could take even a step forward, the closet door slammed shut once more, leaving her completely in the enclosed darkness. She was blinded by the oppressive shadows.

She was not afraid of tight spaces  _ or _ the dark, but… well, she’d just been tricked into locking herself away by a ghost. Understandably, she was frightened and feared for her life just a bit, after seeing so many scary movies in which somebody was murdered by an angry spirit. Peridot swallowed down her panic, trying to push open the door to the closet but finding it jammed. Okay, okay, she could remain calm and try to solve this problem reasonably and without completely freaking out (and maybe if she told herself that enough she would start believing it and relaxing). She heaved a deep breath before pressing her entire weight on the door, trying to force herself out and leave the closet unharmed.

Before she could force it open, however, she heard a loud crash and the sound of something rolling across the floor; something had just knocked over her camera. She groaned and banged her forehead against the wooden door, immediately regretting it for the sparks of pain that rolled through her head. That might leave a bruise, though she really hoped not. As if it would help save the rest of her very expensive equipment, she started slamming her entire body against the door, hoping that maybe it would break the wood or the hinges and let her out. It crossed her mind to call out for Lapis, but she didn’t want her girlfriend to think that she couldn’t take care of herself.

Her mind was changed almost immediately, though, when a pair of big hands like the ones Steven had mentioned suddenly shoved her towards the back wall of the closet. Peridot gave a startled squeal and stumbled backwards, landing on her butt and staring up at the empty space where whatever had pushed her must be standing. Cold adrenaline pumped through her veins, her entire body from her neck to her toes completely tense as she tried to avoid shivering. The temperature in the room suddenly, dramatically dropped a good ten degrees lower, and she found rather easily that her flannel and sweatpants were no longer keeping her warm and relaxed. 

The blonde remained as still as she possibly could, hoping that she wouldn’t anger whatever was there any further. Shakily, she pulled a penlight from her pocket, taking several tries before finally managing to click the button on the bottom and aiming the light in the general direction of whatever had pushed her. She could see her breath, much warmer than the air and curling in the clearness of the closet like the smoke of her mother’s cigarettes.

A massive darkness stood before her, and the light’s inability to penetrate it was what tipped her off to the fact that it wasn’t an ordinary shadow. Peridot swallowed thickly and got to her feet as best she could, leaning completely against the back wall and staring at the shadow, afraid that it would lunge forward and attack her if she dared to rip her green gaze away from it. She was shocked into silence, barely breathing and quietly watching, waiting for the entity to make the first move.

She was ripped out of her shock when a pair of cruel yellow eyes opened where the thing’s face should have been, and she took a deep breath before shrieking out her girlfriend’s name.

* * *

 

Lapis knew what fear sounded like, and hearing it from Peridot’s voice was something common, but never at this level. Her legs were carrying her up the stairs in the back portion of the house before she’d even processed that it meant danger, the only thing she cared about at the moment being finding her girlfriend and rescuing her from whatever was making her scream like that.

She very nearly ran into the door of the closet when she reached it, panicking for a moment before remembering to reach down and twist the doorknob. Peridot practically fell out of the enclosed space and into her arms, and Lapis held her tightly, her grip almost suffocating as she felt the younger woman shake and stifle sobs against her. She backed up and seated herself on the double bed in the room, hold becoming a bit gentler as she surveyed the area to make sure that nothing was here anymore. The camera had been knocked down and the wood of the door to the closet was splintering slightly, probably from being slammed really hard, but the room seemed fairly deserted with the exception of herself, Peridot, and now Steven, watching from the doorway with an expression of terror.

Once her girlfriend had relaxed enough that she stopped shaking and her breaths become more even and less like she was about to cry, she gently pulled back from the embrace and carefully smoothed Peridot’s mess of blonde hair back into its usual position. She would carry on this investigation by herself if the younger woman was so shaken up that she needed to leave the house or was in danger, but she wanted to make sure that she was going to be okay. “What happened?” she asked softly, pressing a light kiss against a red spot on Peridot’s forehead.

“I was setting up the camera, and the closet door slammed, so I poked my head to see if I could tell what was going on, and I heard a groan, and then whatever closed the door closed me in. I tried to get out myself, and then I felt it push me back, and it got really cold, and I turned on my light to try and see it, and there was a big shadow there with yellow eyes and I panicked.”

Lapis frowned and tugged her a little closer, thousands of thoughts rushing through her mind though she tried her hardest to settle on just one to focus on. She sucked in a deep breath before gently resting her chin on top of Peridot’s head, closing her eyes. “You seem pretty shaken up, so I’ll just handle the rest of the investigation, okay? I had a run in too, but it didn’t… hurt me or anything, so I’m sure it won’t try anything funny on me.”

The blonde sniffed before pulling back to glare pointedly. “I’m not leaving you alone in this house,” she snapped, poking Lapis’ nose and making her give a slightly amused snort. “You don’t know for sure if you’ll be safe on your own, so I am staying right here and making sure it doesn’t hurt you. You can’t say anything to change my mind, Lazuli.” Peridot shifted back against her chest, arms curling protectively around her. “I mean, I can’t protect you or anything, but I own this business too, and I’m your girlfriend, and I say we stick together. Maybe we could get Steven out of the house, though.”

“Hey! I’m not going anywhere, either! This is  _ my  _ house, and the ghost bothered me first,” Steven spoke up stubbornly from the doorway - Lapis had forgotten that he was there, and when she looked up he was pouting with his arms crossed over his chest. She snorted, but didn’t laugh - she  _ really _ didn’t like the idea of her cousin in danger, and while his stubbornness was kind of amusing or endearing, she figured this was neither the time nor the place for it.

“Unfortunately, Steven, I think Pearl would murder me and bury me in your backyard if she found out that you were injured under my supervision,” Lapis responded, sliding off the bed with Peridot. “We’re the adults here - and yes, I know you’re fourteen and in high school, but that doesn’t make you an adult  _ or _ old enough to handle this. Peridot can drive you over to Ruby and Sapphire’s if you don’t feel like walking again, but I’m not letting up on this.” She glanced at Peridot to make sure that she was handling this well, and received an encouraging nod in response, so she shifted back to looking at Steven.

The youngest of the three puffed his cheeks out, but when neither of them conceded he sighed heavily and nodded, letting his arms fall back to his sides. “I guess Peri can drive me over,” he finally agreed, albeit with a rather grumpy tone. “But if you die while you’re alone in the house, then I’m not going to your funeral! And I  _ definitely _ won’t give the eulogy or play music!”

“I’m not going to die being left alone for ten minutes,” Lapis sighed as she rolled her eyes, pushing Peridot towards him. “Have a good night, I’ll see you in the morning.”

Steven stuck out his tongue, but allowed the blonde to lead him out of the house. Lapis busied herself with righting the camera and setting everything back up, but as soon as she heard the front door slam shut, she sprinted down the stairs and into the foyer of the house, watching from the opposite side of the curtain as light flooded the driveway. Careful blue eyes observed as their shared van rolled away from the property, the gravel of the long driveway crunching underneath the tires.

As soon as the van was no longer audible, Lapis clicked the lock into place.

Peridot would probably murder her for it come morning, but she was not about to let her girlfriend throw herself back into danger for the sake of an investigation. This affected Lapis and her family, and the ghost had only been violent towards the blonde so far - Lapis was determined that no harm would come to  _ her, _ but there was no way in hell she would ever forgive herself if Peridot’s bright light was snuffed out because she wasn’t stubborn enough to save her from an angry entity.

* * *

 

These things were always ten times harder to do alone than they were to do with a partner. There needed to be one person doing three jobs - keeping an eye on the cameras, walking around the house watching for any phenomena, and conducting her own EVPs and voice sessions. Lapis would never admit it, but by the time fifteen minutes had passed after Peridot and Steven’s departure from the house, she was exhausted and needed a break. There were still eight hours until the sun started rising and the world began to brighten up, and already she was laying down with her back pressed against the cold, hard wood of the floor and a voice recorder held over her head.

The blinking red light indicated that it was recording - she had never turned it off after trying to ask questions with Steven. That meant that it had captured most of their conversation upstairs, and any additions the ghost might have had to explain itself. She hoped it had spoken, because regardless of the reasoning it might have had, Lapis was going to get herself killed just so that she could kick some spectral ass. Nothing messed with the people she cared about and got away with it.

_ Nothing. _

She sighed and clicked the button to stop the recorder before rolling to her feet and straightening out her hoodie, tucking a strand of raven hair behind one ear before stuffing her hands into her pockets and starting to move in order to check on the cameras upstairs. It had been a while since she checked, so she probably needed to ensure that they were still rolling and no batteries needed to be replaced - and she needed to make sure that Peridot had finished setting them all up.

Speaking of Peridot, she couldn’t help but wonder why the blonde hadn’t shown back up at the house yet. No car had pulled into the driveway, and God knows the smaller woman would have made an attempt to knock the door down as soon as she realized it was locked. Lapis chuckled a little at the thought - her girlfriend was a force to be reckoned with when she was angry, but Garnet had gone through extra measures when the house was built to make sure that nothing could break it down. If she remembered right, there was even a tall fence at some point, though she was fairly certain that had been Pearl’s suggestion and that it was removed when it was accepted that it wasn’t keeping anyone out.

Lapis was ripped out of her thoughts by the sound of something banging downstairs, making her jump and grab onto the rail of the stairs on instinct. Heart racing in her chest, she quickly turned around and looked into the empty living room, her gaze flitting around to make sure that there was nothing there. The banging sounded once more after a minute, and she tensed, gripping the rail so harshly that her knuckles turned white.

Oh. It was just the door. That meant Peridot was back.

The woman sighed heavily and loosened her grip, wiping her sweaty palms off on her hoodie as she turned back around to continue on her way up the stairs. She wasn’t about to let the blonde back in the house, but she was relieved that it wasn’t something dangerous - and she’d been hoping that she would come back, anyway, having been feeling a little left behind at the lagging pace at which she returned. Peridot was going to be royally pissed off in the morning, but Lapis was fairly certain that she could handle it.

Until the same harsh pounding sounded against one of the doors upstairs.

Lapis’ heart leapt into her throat and she shuddered, shoulders tense enough that her muscles would be sore later as she cautiously made her way to the offending door. The smell of something rotten offended her senses as soon as she got close to the door, and she wrinkled her nose, blood running cold as she remembered that rotting meat signified that a demon might be present. Nothing had occurred in threes yet, so she couldn’t jump to that conclusion, but the possibility was heavy in her mind as she reached out and shoved the door open, jumping back as soon as her hand left the knob.

Oh.

Normally, the mess presented before her would have concerned her, but judging by the generous pile of lewd magazines on top of the mostly-bare mattress and the light purple color of the walls, this was Amethyst’s room. Lapis was disappointed, but not necessarily surprised. The youngest of Steven’s guardians and Jasper’s half sister had never grown out of the tendency to live in a pigsty of a bedroom, but it was never this bad whenever Lapis stayed in this house. Pearl must have given up trying to get her to clean - but that was probably to be expected. Either way, that explained where the smell originated.

That didn’t explain the banging, though.  _ That _ completely defied logical explanation. Unless, of course, Amethyst was still in the house and was trying to play a trick on her - that wouldn’t really be a surprise, either. It didn’t completely explain everything that was going on, but it would certainly explain one thing without jumping to the conclusion that it was the ghost - and that was a possibility that Lapis always needed to consider as a professional.

She shrugged and left the room, closing the door behind her as she started walking down the hall. She’d have to search the whole house, top to bottom, and make sure.

* * *

 

It had taken  _ way _ longer to convince Pearl that everything was fine than Peridot would have liked. It took her five minutes to get to Ruby and Sapphire’s pleasant home, but of  _ course _ she had to be fussed over for a solid fifteen minutes before she was allowed to drive back to the big beach house. She was already in a bad mood when she rolled up and stomped her way up onto the deck - and the sourness only increased tenfold when she tried to open the door and found it stuck tight.

“Lazuli, open the fucking door!” she snapped up at the house, hoping that Lapis would hear her to no avail. She kicked the offending barrier, but that really didn’t do much either - she supposed she shouldn’t be this surprised, but she was definitely pissed off. The blonde pulled her cell phone out of the breast pocket of her flannel, angrily jamming her finger onto Lapis’ contact and holding the device to her ear as she listened to it ring, once, twice, before being picked up.

“You clod!” she snapped without really caring about whether or not she would hurt her girlfriend’s ear or feelings. “We’re in this together, I thought we agreed on that! I am an intelligent adult so if you tell me that I don’t know what I’m getting myself into I’m going to kick your ass! You’d better come down here and open the stupid door or I’ll give you the faulty equipment next time!” Empty threats, of course, and Lapis would probably know that, but she couldn’t help but try.

It was the responding chuckle that made her completely freeze.

That was not Lapis, and it couldn’t even be Lapis messing with her. The voice was too deep, too throaty, and her girlfriend’s range didn’t cover that much - and that wasn’t even mentioning that it sounded familiar. Who it belonged to, she couldn’t remember, but it put a sick feeling in her chest, and also complete terror for Lapis - the older woman never let anyone else touch her cell phone after the shit she’d gone through with Jasper, so it must have been taken from her forcefully. “Who is this?” Peridot spoke, hoping that she sounded angry and demanding but at least ninety percent sure that she was just coming off as shrill and childish. 

As much as she wanted an answer, she didn’t get one. The strange voice on the other line hung up after a few seconds of silence, and Peridot felt sick. She needed to get into that house. She didn’t care if it was a ghost or an intruder that was in there with Lazuli, but whoever it was, she was going to kick their ass and make a run for it with her girlfriend in tow.

The blonde picked up a rock resting near the edge of the deck, slamming it into the window with as much strength as she could muster and taking great glee when it shattered without much effort. She scrambled to pull herself up to the window, careful to keep away from the broken glass, and struggled her way into the house. She landed on her feet on the wooden floor of the foyer, broken glass crunching underneath her boots as she ran through the archway into the living room.

* * *

 

The glass shattering concerned Lapis more than anything else at the moment. Her current mission completely forgotten, she sprinted back down the hallway and to the stairs, spotting Peridot standing by a broken window before anything else - and franticness immediately gave way to frustration as she ran down the stairs and over to her girlfriend. “What the  _ fuck?  _ The whole point of locking the door was to keep you  _ out!” _ she snapped, barely resisting the urge to shove the younger woman out of anger. “Jesus Christ, Peridot, what if you’d cut your hand open?”

“You’re worried about whether or not I could have gotten a cut? We agreed that we were going to do this together! I told you that I can handle it!” Peridot snapped in response, a clear scowl on her face as she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Lapis. The older of the two found that she was angrier than anything else as the moment - odd how worry gave in to fury so easily. “Look, I love you a lot and I don’t want you to get hurt by this thing because you decided to go all martyr again and do the entire job by yourself. So you might want to get over yourself and accept it, because I was so worried about you that I risked bloodshed by breaking a window.”

Well, that was one way to dispel her fury. Lapis sniffed and glared at her girlfriend for just a moment before crossing her arms over her chest and looking away. “Fine, I’ll let you stay and do the job with me,” she replied after a few moments of thinking it over. “But if you get hurt, you have to pay for the hospital using only  _ your _ money.”

“Cold,” Peridot grumbled, and before Lapis could turn around and walk back into the house she suddenly had the smaller woman pressed against her, face buried in her throat. The older of the two sighed heavily before returning the embrace. “I wish you’d stop convincing yourself that you’re alone and you have to do everything alone. We’ve been doing this for a year, and we’ve been together even longer than that. And then you get angry when other people confront you about it.”

“I’m sorry, I didn’t know this was ‘make Lapis feel guilty about her issues with communicating’ day. I thought that wasn’t until tomorrow, when I have to deal with Pearl.”

“You’re right. Sorry.”

“I forgive you  _ this _ time.”

Lapis then sighed and gently took hold of her girlfriend’s hand, pressing a soft kiss against her cheek before beginning to lead her into the house…

But before she could, the younger woman was violently wrenched from her grip.

Startled and shocked, Lapis quickly turned around just in time to notice that Peridot was falling down the numerous stairs leading up to the deck of the beach house. She swallowed thickly, body reacting before her mind could as she chased after her - she didn’t really have enough time to wonder how she got over there that fast, nor what pulled her there.

It kind of went without saying, though, that whatever was in this house was out for Peridot’s blood. As she managed to catch up and grab her girlfriend’s wrist halfway down, she’d already decided that she was going to get her away from the property and cut the investigation short.

Lapis swallowed thickly as she lifted the younger woman into her arms, tucking her head underneath her chin and carrying her the rest of the way down. Peridot was dazed but not unconscious, and didn’t seem to have any broken bones from what the older of the two could tell, but she could wait until they were both safe to decide that.

Thankfully, the van was parked fairly close to the house, and Lapis wasted no time in quickly depositing her girlfriend into the passenger seat and turning the key, speeding out of the driveway like a demon with her destination only partially in mind.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> it's probably really obvious who the ghost is and why they're attacking by now, huh?


	3. Chapter 3

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Lapis is very, very frustrated, and needs a nap.

Lapis had bluffed. She paid the entirety of the hospital bill when she sped Peridot to Beach City’s hospital and pulled into the nearly deserted emergency room, mostly because she was the one with just over a thousand dollars tucked away in a box in the back of the van. The younger of the two wasn’t horribly injured - a sprained ankle was the worst of it, a cluster of bruises now dotting her pale skin the most tame, and the older of the two didn’t think she would ever get over how relieved she was that it wasn’t something more serious. However, she also didn’t think she would ever get over how ridiculously overpriced the X-Ray, getting Peridot’s ankle wrapped up, and the crutches had been.

Not wanting to have their insurance bill be through the roof later, Lapis gave the receptionist a look that meant pure murder as she forked over five hundred dollars. Five hundred  _ fucking _ dollars. Part of her figured that she should be grateful that it wasn’t closer to the $24,110 range of the unpredictable ER prices, but most of her was bitter that healthcare was so goddamn expensive and wanted to march up to whoever decided on this bull and give them a piece of her mind. For now, though, she watched with barely contained despair as half of the money she’d been saving for a ring disappeared from her view.

“You’re looking at that money like it’s your only child and you’re giving it up to a satanic cult to be sacrificed,” Peridot commented, and while most of the time Lapis would be frustrated, she figured that she’d been angry enough today. She needed to save her internal generator of rage for when she found out how exactly to kick a ghost’s ass. Besides, there was still an underlying tension from their argument and the problems of the night, and Lapis wanted to do away with it.

“Jesus Christ, you’d almost think that the healthcare system here in good old America  _ was _ a satanic cult. I’m pretty sure it’s run by the devil himself with these stupid prices.” She sniffed disdainfully, gently resting a hand on Peridot’s shoulder and leading her out of the hospital, wanting more than anything else to just get to Ruby and Sapphire’s house and sleep for the next thirty years. “Or maybe some stupid guy trying to claim that it’s getting money for better causes and saving us from our gluttonous, sinful tendencies so we can turn to God for salvation, when he’s actually just hoarding all the money for himself so he can add to his beautiful mansion and get a very big, very fancy wedding for when he marries his fifteenth trophy wife.”

“Why does that sound like something Donald Trump would do?”

The older of the two tried to restrain the laugh that bubbled up in her throat but only succeeded in making it sound strangled as she keeled over. It wasn’t even that funny, really, but she was so tired and in such a bad mood that even the smallest things would probably make her laugh hysterically at the moment. “Because he definitely would,” she finally managed to respond once she could start walking again.

Lapis led Peridot to their van and carefully helped her into the passenger seat before sighing heavily and resting her head on the steering wheel. She was going to have to settle for something less just so she could save up enough money in less than ten years. It didn’t take her very long to get over it for the moment and start the van, backing out of the parking lot and driving back to the more suburban areas of Beach City to turn in for the night.

“What about all our equipment?” Peridot piped up after a couple of minutes of driving, and Lapis barely resisted the urge to roll her eyes. Of course her nerdy girlfriend would worry about whether or not their cameras and recorders were safe after being thrown down a massive set of stairs off the deck. “And no, I’m not just worried so we can see evidence and shit! That stuff’s expensive, and if we still want to keep our business up and running we can’t afford to let everything get completely destroyed.”

“Don’t worry about it, Dot, I’m going to go get our equipment after I drop you off at the Fires’ place,” Lapis replied with a shrug, and quickly put a hand up as soon as she saw Peridot opening her mouth and taking a breath to speak. “And before you say that you’re going to come with me, no. You’re already injured, so you can’t really carry anything, and I don’t want you getting hurt again. Yes, I’ll get Garnet and Amethyst to help me carry everything, and yes, I will be careful.”

Peridot snorted and crossed her arms over her chest before glowering out the side window, and Lapis reached over and messed with her hair, making her scowl and bat her hand away. “Focus on the road, Lazuli!” she snapped, green eyes narrowed into a harsh glare that failed to sustain any legitimate heat. “Fine, though. I guess I can’t argue when you’re  _ actually _ logical and when you already agreed to let me help you  _ once _ tonight.” The blonde then reached over and poked Lapis’ nose, and she stuck her tongue out in response.

It was nice to be back to playful teasing after arguing earlier that night.

Beach City was small enough that it didn’t take more than eight minutes to reach Ruby and Sapphire’s pleasant home that was barely big enough to fit the amount of guests they were now housing due to the issues going on in the Quartz Universe household. Lapis made an attempt to help Peridot get out of the van only to be waved away, but she still wrapped one arm around the smaller woman’s waist and tugged her along up the walkway.

Before Lapis could completely relax, though, the door swung open and out of the house stormed a very stressed out, very frustrated Pearl. “Steven said you were going to be in the house until eight! It’s not even sunrise yet. If you’re half assing this job, then maybe we shouldn’t pay you at all!” the pale woman snapped as she grabbed both Lapis and Peridot by the fronts of their shirts and dragged them into the house. The bluenette yanked herself back immediately and straightened out the disturbed fabric, a rather pissed off frown settled on her face. Before she could even say anything in response, though, Pearl seemed to notice that Peridot’s ankle was wrapped up, and the corners of her lips tugged downwards into a concerned frown. “What on earth happened?”

“Well, if you’d actually let us get into the house before you went completely batshit, I would have had enough time to explain,” Peridot responded coolly, using one hand to straighten out her glasses. “Lapis and I have confirmed that the entity in your house is dangerous. It locked me in a closet, and shortly after I dropped Steven off here, it shoved me down the stairs of the front porch. We’re here early because I had to go to the hospital to make sure that it wasn’t broken and we happen to put our own safety well above getting a full night’s worth of recordings.”

“The cameras should still be rolling right now unless the thing stopped them, anyway,” Lapis added with a shrug, annoyance still mostly prevalent in her mind - and, in extension, her voice. “I was hoping that I could borrow Garnet and Ame for a little while to get everything in the van and bring it all here for reviewing. I mostly just need them to make sure I don’t try to fight this stupid ghost.”

Pearl glanced between them for a couple of moments before her brows furrowed and an almost scary expression appeared on her face as she glowered at Lapis. The bluenette tensed and reached for her girlfriend’s hand - she’d never really gotten along with the tall woman in front of her, though they did act like friends for Steven’s sake whenever it was necessary. “Well, Peridot, I’m glad you’re okay after your very irresponsible business partner left you to fend for yourself. Lapis, you really should have kept a closer eye on her. You know she isn’t very good at deciding when to quit.”

“Oh, and she  _ does?” _ Peridot squeaked indignantly, squeezing Lapis’ hand almost painfully tightly - enough that she was more concentrated on her bones being crushed than she was on being insulted by her girlfriend’s words. “Pearl, she tried to get me to go away, but we’re partners. Both in business and life. If I was getting hurt, then she probably could’ve been in danger too! And that’s not something that’s going to be faced alone.” The bluenette could feel rather than see the heated glare that bright green eyes aimed at her for a split second. 

The tallest of the three women in the room opened her mouth as if she was going to speak again, but the opening of the door and entering of Garnet shut her up rather easily. She leaned against a nearby wall and carefully watched both Lapis and Peridot for a moment before glancing at Pearl. “Peridot’s right. It’s probably best that they stuck together. One of them could have been hurt way worse than a sprained ankle if left to their own devices,” she spoke coolly. “And I think gathering up the equipment can wait until the morning. You’re both probably exhausted and shaken up, and you need all the rest you can get.”

Under most circumstances, Lapis might have argued, or asked what she meant with the vague dread implied by the last sentence, but at the moment… she really was exhausted. The night had been twice as difficult as most were and they hadn’t rested since the panicked phone call that morning, and she was about ready to just collapse with Peridot in her arms and sleep the next few days away. So with a shrug, she allowed Garnet to lead her and her girlfriend upstairs to one of the guest bedrooms.

* * *

 

For the first time in a year, Lapis dreamed about Jasper.

It wasn’t an overly terrifying nightmare like the old ones had been, mostly consisting of constantly glancing behind her only to find her hulking ex following her and staring at her, but it brought with it a vague sense of paranoia that stuck with her when she opened her eyes groggily after only three hours of sleep. She groaned, staring at the ceiling and trying not to suffer too much due to her dry mouth.

It was with a heavy sigh that she concluded that she  _ probably _ ought to go get something to drink.

She rolled out of the bed, glancing over at Peridot, who was nestled against four pillows and snoring slightly. Yeah, she would probably be out until at least noon, so Lapis seriously doubted that she needed to worry about making too much noise and interrupting her girlfriend’s sleep as she stumbled out of the bedroom in a half awake stupor - most of the time she wouldn’t have even thought twice about it, but the nagging guilt surrounding what had happened in the house still followed her consistently, and she wanted to do everything she could to make it up to Peridot, even if she wasn’t upset with her. Letting her sleep was just the easiest… in theory, of course.

Ruby and Sapphire’s house wasn’t horribly big - at least, not to the extent that Steven’s was. It consisted of two modestly sized levels, three bedrooms and a study upstairs, a master bedroom and most of the living space downstairs. Lapis hadn’t been here too many times, but the floor plan wasn’t exactly difficult to navigate - she was very grateful for the straightforward design and the many, many,  _ many _ family pictures that acted as landmarks.

All things considered, it was easy to make her way down to the kitchen and sit up on the counter with a glass of ice water in one hand and the other lightly pinching the skin of her arm to keep her awake. She was already falling back asleep, and she didn’t particularly feel like passing out in the kitchen… why she didn’t just carry her glass of water back upstairs, she wasn’t entirely sure, but she was honestly too tired to question herself. Odds were she wouldn’t even remember this in the morning.

Halfway through the water she decided that she wasn’t thirsty anymore and dumped the contents of the glass into the sink, stretching with a loud yawn before sliding off the counter and promptly forgetting how to stand up straight and falling on her ass. With a grunt, she sprawled out on the linoleum and seriously considered just sleeping there like a hopeless drunk overnight… but did end up starting to pull herself up on her elbows after a couple of moments, muttering quiet curse words and as much bitterness as she could get out of her system.

Almost as soon as she stood up, she could have sworn that she saw an immense shadow in the doorway, glaring at her with bright yellow eyes that contrasted massively with the rest of it. A lump formed in Lapis’ throat, and she was stuck staring for several moments before she remembered to blink.

Her eyes were only closed for a split second, but as soon as she looked again, the massive shadow had disappeared from the doorway. Lapis swallowed thickly, but eventually decided that she had just been seeing things and decided to go back upstairs to sleep.

It didn’t occur to her that the golden hue of those eyes was familiar.

* * *

 

There were too many damn cords involved in reviewing the footage every damn time. SD cards were stuffed into Peridot’s travelling laptop, and Lapis found herself jealous of the younger woman’s  _ much _ easier job of looking through what the normal night vision cameras picked up. Her own computer was stuffed with enough wires and USB cords connected to thermal cameras and voice recorders that she was convinced that the whole setup would overheat and set fire to the house.

_ Good thing Ruby’s a firefighter, _ she thought to herself with a faint snort as she pulled up the files nestled on one of the thermal cameras. This was the most boring part of the job, mainly because ninety percent of the time absolutely nothing was captured on almost all devices, but they usually spent the several hours it took to review all footage in silence because sometimes there was a soft noise captured that could be something paranormal. It was barely even worth it for the moment of pure excitement and wonder that still occurred when something popped up, and it  _ definitely _ wasn’t worth wasting so much of her youth if absolutely nothing happened.

Even though she was  _ technically _ supposed to go through everything in chronological order, Lapis had decided to take a quick detour in desperation for  _ some _ sort of interest - at least she was still going through thermal imaging instead of just moving completely to the audio already. There’d been one set up across from the couch by the time she’d felt the oppressive heat against her front, and it took a moment for her to remember which one it was - their notes had been forgotten in the panic of making a run for it, and nobody had come across them when she was in the house with Garnet and Amethyst gathering up equipment. Lapis was just assuming that they were gone forever, and took the numbers assigned to different rooms with them. As soon as she’d clicked through a bunch of files, fast forwarded, and located a steady view of hers and Steven’s heat signatures from the previous night, though, she smiled faintly to herself and clicked the play button.

Sure enough, at the edge of the screen a huge body of white heat appeared after less than a minute of watching the footage from roughly ten forty five in the evening. Lapis rested her chin on her fist, watching as the cloud of heat approached her own signature - it was several times warmer than she appeared on the camera. She watched herself back up a step and sit on the couch, the white heat moving off after a few moments and walking out of the room.

Unable to physically contain her excitement, Lapis quickly reached over to her girlfriend and shook her shoulder, not really paying attention as Peridot grumbled something and leaned over to view her computer screen. The older woman rewinded the clip slightly so that it was set at the beginning, the ghost’s heat signature just barely visible in the corner, and played the video.

Peridot was silent for the most part, a small frown on her face as she observed the footage. She paused the video roughly at the point where it completely smothered Lapis’ heat signature and leaned in to the screen, so much so that Lapis partially feared her eyes would be damaged and wanted to remove her glasses. “Well, this certainly doesn’t have a logical explanation. Looks like this was about a hundred and twenty degrees Fahrenheit, which is a lot more than the average human body can withstand. Did you feel this touch you at the time it was happening?”

“Yeah,” Lapis responded with a nod, squinting at the blob of heat on the screen. The more she tried to focus on it, the more it took on the shape of a very large person - a very large, very  _ familiar _ person. She had to swallow down the lump that was appearing in her throat. No, it was probably a relative of Rose’s that was pissed that somebody was in her house. “Actually, this was just a couple of minutes before your experience upstairs. Have you gotten to that point on your footage yet?”

“No, but I’m about at that point, so if you wanna lean over and get a break from bright colors you can.” Peridot then turned back to her laptop, clicking on the file that would hold the footage. “It happened while I was starting a new recording file, so it should be fairly quick.” She then leaned back from the screen, allowing Lapis to scoot over and have a clear view of the footage captured by the master bedroom camera.

The image of the dark room was a little shaky due to Peridot adjusting the tripod and grainy due to the camera’s high ISO that allowed it to capture film in the dark. Before the camera had even steadied, Lapis noticed a large shadow roughly the same shape as the hot spot that had touched her manifest in the doorway before drifting a little closer to the gaping darkness flooding from the wide open closet door - it joined in with the black void before the door slammed shut with a loud noise that startled even Lapis. The loud “FUCK” that escaped her girlfriend on-camera was enough to make her laugh slightly, however, even though she knew what was about to happen.

“Oh, my god, that is the most rookie mistake I have ever seen you commit, Dot,” the older woman commented simply as she watched the camera settle into a somewhat crooked position, a grainy image of the blonde walking around the camera and towards the empty closet. The real life Peridot shoved her shoulder slightly, and Lapis didn’t need to look over at her in order to know that she was rolling her eyes in response. “What? I’m just being honest with you. We’ve talked over and over about how  _ I _ shouldn’t approach spiritual activity alone, but  _ you _ go off and do it, no problem.”

“I was startled, and wanting to see what that was all about was only instinctual, Lazuli! I’m still more careful than you most of the time, and I can say with  _ confidence _ that I will not be going anywhere near something like that again.” Peridot pouted, and Lapis scoffed before turning back to the screen. She watched as her girlfriend stepped into the closet, and this time she resisted the urge to make another chastising comment - and that playful criticism quickly melted into anger as she watched the shadow appear again, this time just outside of the closet, and slam the door.

How  _ dare _ that thing think it could touch her girlfriend? Lapis shuddered slightly at the thought of Peridot being even more seriously injured than a few bruises and a sprained ankle, and clenched her fists. Was it possible to kick a dead person’s ass? Because she was ready to do it if there was some way to give a ghost a black eye. Fuck, maybe two black eyes. She’d probably even try if there was no possible way to accomplish it.

“Interesting,” she said anyway, leaning back from the screen with a frown on her face. They’d never really gotten all that much from an investigation before - this was groundbreaking for their business, and would probably make them more high profile. But was it worth it? She still had yet to decide. “It’s really cool that we got this much solid stuff. Should I put the thermal imaging file onto the drive and let you put stuff together in a new folder? I think I’m gonna get up and go for a walk.”

“Sure. Just don’t get in too much trouble.”

* * *

 

It was surprisingly warm for an October evening, albeit with the usual chill dictating that Lapis tug a sweatshirt on. Beach City was a quiet, peaceful place; nothing much about it earned the name of a ‘city,’ except the abandoned warehouse district downtown that had once been a booming industrial industry but now was a silent area with the exception of the weekly bass bumping announcing that local DJ Sour Cream was holding another rave. Lapis had been to a couple, but not for a while. Maybe if she and Peridot stuck around into the weekend she’d come by and take a break from the spooky stuff.

For the moment, though, her thoughts were stuck in a midway point between the nostalgic and the fearful. She’d spent her childhood in this town, she knew the name of almost everybody that she passed by on the streets with a smile and a wave, and she could navigate without even needing to think about it. If she hadn’t felt trapped in place by her relationship with Jasper, she might have stayed here her whole life. She wasn’t particularly off-put by that idea, she supposed.

She wasn’t entirely sure where she was going until she felt the unmistakable shifting in the ground that told her that she was walking on sand and heard the crashing of waves against the shore.

Lapis glanced up at the expanse of dark water before her and the setting sun overhead. Of course she would end up at the beach. The woman sighed heavily and walked closer to the water, discarding her shoes to the side and sitting down with her toes where the cold liquid could reach. She still vehemently refused to go swimming in the ocean after nearly drowning shortly before her breakup with Jasper, but she was still drawn to the expanse of saltwater; it had gotten her through her mess of a childhood, and that alone was worth being attached despite almost dying.

After a moment of just staring at the tugging waves, she laid down in the sand, letting her black and blue hair fan out across the grains of eroded rock. Closing her eyes and listening to the gentle and steady waves, she found herself being lulled into a state of relaxation, her mind clearing as she slowly ley all the tension leave her muscles.

There’d be sand in her hair later. She couldn’t find it in her to care.

Lapis closed her eyes with a heavy sigh, promising herself that she would only rest here for a few more minutes. It was too peaceful to up and leave just yet.

* * *

 

When a steady beeping coming from her pocket forced her to open her eyes, above her lay a calm and beautiful blanket of twinkling stars, the cloudy stretch of the Milky Way more visible than she’d ever witnessed in the suburbs. Judging by the fact that she was now a lot colder and it was now a lot darker, she guessed that she had fallen asleep, but for how long was the mystery.

Once that realization was out of the way, she noticed that she  _ probably _ ought to investigate the grating beeping sourcing from her pocket. Lapis sighed and reached into her pocket, blinking slightly when she realized that she never put away the detector or the voice recorder - she must have completely forgotten about them with the panic of the previous night and the eventful day that followed. A small frown twitched at the corner of her lips, mostly from confusion; why was it detecting a ghost  _ here? _

She glanced towards the cliff, the lighthouse’s ray of hope making its nightly round, and noticed with a slight frown that she was somewhat near the beach house. It  **could** be the same ghost, and if it was, she wished she could see it so that she could unleash hell. Normally, she would be excited by the prospect of getting some paranormal activity, but she didn’t have any equipment with her and she’d had about  _ enough _ ghosts for the week - and if this was the same ghost as the one that had hurt Peridot, she didn’t want to have anything to do with it until she was at the top of her game.

She’d just woken up after passing out on the beach. She was not in the right mind to fight something trapped between life and afterlife. 

Actually, she probably ought to get back to Ruby and Sapphire’s. Peridot would be worried about her by now, if she knew her girlfriend at all.

So Lapis sighed heavily and rose to her feet, stretching and ignoring the constant beeping coming from her pocket. Turning away from the ocean, she began to make her way down the beach and back into the town, cautiously watching the many dark corners and buildings she passed - Beach City was a mostly safe place, one crime maybe every three years and usually just an armed robbery, but she was used to having to watch her back whenever she went anywhere. She had years of being in an abusive and toxic relationship to thank for that, and her parents being fairly absent most of her childhood. She was one hell of a mess of a human being, and most of the time that frustrated her, but at the moment it tired her further. She just wanted to curl up in the spare bedroom she and Peridot shared and pass out.

The device didn’t stop beeping, though. It continued to let out its grating siren song, warning Lapis that there was a spirit nearby that she needed to record or be careful of. She grit her teeth, the beginnings of a headache beginning to crack against her skull - the sound was reminiscent of an alarm clock, which brought back rather nasty memories of the nine to five shift she’d worked while she was dating Jasper, which was absolutely not a positive memory to maintain. She’d always woken up sore and groggy before work, and the final few months of their relationship she had been in a near constant state of being in a bad mood due to that.

It took about three blocks before she could no longer take it anymore, and it was on the deserted main road of the old warehouse district that she lost her patience with whatever ghost was following her. She had to have walked out of their territory by now - so either she was the tether, which was unlikely because she hadn’t been present at any deaths lately, or the entirety of Beach City was the tether to the spirit, which was more likely but suggested the spirit might be seriously powerful.

Powerful enough to slam a human in a closet and push her down a flight of stairs.

In a fit of frustration, Lapis stomped her foot on the pavement of the road and ripped the sound recorder from her pocket. She didn’t like being followed - she didn’t like being stalked - there were too many bad memories, too many bad connotations. She had nearly hit Peridot in surprise a couple of times for silently following her with the intent to scare her because she’d been startled by someone stalking her around her own house (not something she was proud of, and something she usually apologized for hundreds of thousands of times.)

The red button on the top of the machine was jammed down with unnecessary force, and Lapis couldn’t help the demanding and angry tone that spilled from her lips; “Why are you following me?” was the simple question, and the stupid ghost had  **better** answer her or there would be hell to pay. Both literally and figuratively, most likely; she was willing to look for a compromise if the answer was a somewhat innocent one, coming from a child or something.

Moments after speaking, she felt the white hot sensation from the previous night hard against her cheek, and she flinched to the side; it felt like she’d just been punched, or maybe kissed very aggressively. She was left reeling and furious, but before she could snap something again, the beeping of the device grew fainter and stopped. Whatever had just harassed her, it was gone, and that brought about a feeling of relative ease, regardless of how brief that would probably end up being.

A frown on her face, Lapis stared at the recording device for a moment before pressing the button to stop. She would wait until she got home and could recite what had just happened to Peridot, but something deep in her chest was anxious to know, to press the button to play back the most recently recorded audio and learn why she had just been followed. So the woman bit her lower lip and did so.

The voice that came out of the device immediately after her own was deep, and gruff, and cruel, and so, so,  _ so _ sickeningly familiar.

“Because you belong to me.”

The voice recorder slipped through her grip and shattered on the pavement.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A WILD DEAD EX APPEARS


	4. Chapter 4

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Filler chapter.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> HAPPY HALLOWEEN HERE'S YOUR TREAT

Peridot had fallen asleep with her face pressed against the keyboard of her laptop, and the slamming open of the door to the house was what roused her from her dead to the world state. Disoriented and sleepy, she pushed herself up from the desk and straightened her glasses before rising to her feet and walking downstairs, almost being barrelled into by her frighteningly frantic girlfriend. Concern was the first emotion to push through her groggy mind once she registered that the thin hand that adopted a painful grip on her wrist was shaking something terrible.

“Lapis, what’s wrong?” she spoke, her voice slowed and slurred by sleep.

“We need to leave,” Lapis stuttered out, tugging on her arm with a sort of franticness Peridot had only seen in her once or twice. The older woman was clearly panicking, and the blonde had no idea what could possibly be wrong - it was starting to freak her out a little bit. “We need to  _ leave. _ Peridot, we need to go home, I can’t do this job, I can’t do it--”

Lapis then successfully managed to tug her back upstairs and into the spare bedroom, quickly stuffing what little clothes they’d packed into the suitcase they shared. Peridot was confused and worried - her girlfriend very rarely gave up on something that she started. Especially when it had to do with her favorite cousin and the place where she’d grown up. “Lapis, you need to calm down. Can you at least tell me what’s wrong? We don’t  _ need _ to leave  _ right now, _ neither of us is in immediate danger. The ghost is at Steven’s house. We can just… sleep for now and then discuss it in the morning.” Gently and cautiously - Lapis could get pretty touchy and lash out when she was in a frenzy like this - she reached out and gently squeezed the older woman’s shoulder.

Nothing could have prepared Peridot for the desperate and terrified look in the dark blue eyes that turned to her, Lapis twisting quickly and grabbing onto her elbows. “I don’t have time to explain, we need to get out of town, we need to do it  _ now. _ Please, just this once, trust me. If we weren’t in some deep shit I wouldn’t be demanding we leave, right? Especially in the middle of the night.” Her tone was soft and scared, a deep frown on her face and most of her petite body struggling to stop shivering. “I’ll tell you what happened on the way home, I promise, just make sure all the equipment is in the van.”

The blonde had to admit that her girlfriend was being really, terrifyingly reasonable. If it had Lapis - who was usually very,  _ very _ sturdy under pressure - this shaken up, then it had to be serious. So Peridot slowly nodded, walking over to the corner of the room with their computers and SD cards and stuffing all of the portable equipment in its big bag.

Within ten minutes, a note had been left on the kitchen counter, and the two paranormal investigators had piled into the van and zoomed out of Beach City.

* * *

 

Awkward silence filled the first stretch of their trip, Peridot’s face pressed against the cold glass of the passenger seat window as she tried to avoid passing out. Lapis seemed to be having no trouble staying awake, though, her gaze set on the road ahead. She had stopped shaking after about an hour, but she looked like she might be sick, and that seriously concerned Peridot for multiple reasons. Mostly because she wanted her girlfriend to be alright, but also partially because she didn’t know how to shampoo the smell of vomit out of the van.

“So, are you planning on explaining why we had to leave so quickly?” the blonde finally asked when she got tired of watching the occasional illuminated road sign in the dark countryside. Her worry was starting to wear away into tiredness, and she was a little annoyed - she had no doubts that whatever made Lapis so desperate to flee was really serious, but she was kind of miffed that it hadn’t been explained to her quite yet. This was a high profile job. She’d wanted to complete it.

“Jasper.”

Well… that hadn’t been an answer she’d been expecting. Lapis’ ex fiancee had been dead for two months now, and they hadn’t outright discussed the trauma the older woman had suffered at her hand since then. Peridot tried to examine her girlfriend’s face for more of an explanation, but she wore a blank expression - which was pretty concerning, considering Lapis usually got either heatedly angry or really scared at any mention of the brute’s name. “Lazuli, if you suddenly got overwhelmed by the memory of being with her you always could have just let me calm you down while we were still at the house. We didn’t have to make a run for it in the middle of the night.”

“No, you don’t understand,” the older woman responded quickly, glancing over at Peridot before putting her gaze back to the road ahead. “The ghost. It’s Jasper. I went for a walk, and then I fell asleep on the beach, and the detector started beeping, so I started walking back because I didn’t feel like dealing with it, and then I got annoyed so I recorded a quick emergency EVP, and it was  _ her voice. _ Per, I would know her voice anywhere, it was her, she’s still after me, she’s still stalking me.”

Peridot… did not know what to say to that.

What  _ could _ she say to that?

She’d never dealt with anything like that, nor could she remember any cases she’d read about in which the ghost of a dead abuser followed the object of their obsession to the point of causing harm to their current loved ones. She opened her mouth, ready to say something, before closing it once more and observing her girlfriend’s emotionless face. Lapis had put the mask back on. There was absolutely no reading whatever she was feeling at the moment.

“Do you still have the recording?” she asked, reaching over to her girlfriend’s hand and intertwining their fingers. Lapis squeezed the extremity, so she supposed that was a good idea. The road was abandoned at this hour anyway, so it was unlikely they’d get into a car crash. “It’s possible you were jumping to a conclusion based on the ghost’s answer. I mean, if it  _ was _ Jasper, then I definitely understand why we left so quickly and I  _ promise _ that we won’t go back to Beach City, but if it wasn’t…”

“I dated her for seven years, Peridot!” the older woman snapped, ripping her hand away and returning it to the wheel. Yeah, she’d just fucked up the little bit of calm between them by jumping to a conclusion and trying to be reasonable. “I know what she sounds like, and I know she’s the only one who would give that answer. I asked why she was following with me, and she said it was because I belong to her. I can’t believe you don’t  _ trust _ me on that.” She sounded… genuinely hurt, and a lump formed in Peridot’s throat. She hadn’t meant to do that. She hadn’t meant to say that.

“Okay, okay, I’m sorry,” the blonde spoke quickly, reaching again for Lapis’ hand - her girlfriend let her take it, and she couldn’t help but notice that the older woman had started shaking again. “Lap, I promise we’re done, okay? We’ll drop the case, delete all the footage, pretend it never happened. I’ll deal with it when Pearl calls with all the rage of a thousand suns. You’re safe. I won’t let that brute touch you.” Of course, Peridot’s capability for self defense was limited at best, but the promise seemed to make Lapis feel better nonetheless. The older woman smiled faintly before turning her attention back to the road.

The rest of the long drive was spent in silence, and within another twenty minutes Peridot found herself fast asleep with her hand still clutching her girlfriend’s.

* * *

 

It was just after six in the morning when Lapis pulled into the driveway of their small house, a heavy sigh passing through her as she parked the van and leaned back in the seat. She could feel the heavy bags forming underneath her eyes already, her vision becoming bleary now that she was somewhere she felt safe. She hadn’t slept more than her two hour nap in the sand since over twenty four hours ago, and she was completely exhausted with the adrenaline of her panicked driving draining from her system.

She couldn’t decide whether she wanted to pick up Peridot and carry her inside with her limited sleepy strength or wake her up and let her walk. It didn’t take her too long to come to a decision - she didn’t want to wake up the tired blonde. Lapis had only been panicked and seriously freaked out by the reappearance of her dead ex; Peridot was the one who’d been injured, which the older woman still blamed herself pretty heavily for.

Lapis slid out of the driver’s seat and walked around the front of the van in order to unbuckle her girlfriend and carefully lift her into her arms. Peridot was heavier than she looked, and the older of the two couldn’t help but grunt slightly and nearly fall over when the entirety of the younger woman’s weight was lifted into her arms bridal style. She was too tired for this, but it was too late to go back and put Peridot back down, so she struggled up the walkway and into the house. Luckily, their couch was directly in the second room of the house, so that was where she laid down her girlfriend.

As soon as she’d laid the nearest blanket over the sleeping Peridot, Lapis sighed heavily and collapsed into a sitting position next to the couch. She pulled her knees to her chest and rested her chin on them, staring at the far wall of the room, her mind completely blank. She didn’t want to think, she didn’t want to feel, she just wanted to curl up and die. Or curl up and sleep. Either one worked at this point, but for Peridot’s sake, she supposed she’d rather have the latter.

But just sitting there, she could achieve neither - unfortunately, she couldn’t really work up the will to push herself to her feet and walk to their bedroom or squeeze herself onto the couch with her girlfriend, either. This was exhausting. Everything was exhausting. As that thought dawned on her, hundreds more flooded to join it, and instead of being a blank space her thoughts were suddenly zooming past each other at a hundred miles an hour, none of them slowing down enough to let her dwell on them.

With a deep breath, she forced herself to slow down and relax, and to repeat the situation back to herself. Jasper was dead. But Jasper was a ghost. Jasper was a very stubborn dead person that had continued to try and follow her two months after she, for all intents and purposes, should have been forced to stop by Mother Nature herself. Lapis really had no idea how she was supposed to deal with this; she could call an exorcist, of course, but with the entire town of Beach City apparently being her tether - she’d have to do a lot of research to find someone willing to do something of that scale.

She would worry about that later, she supposed. She was exhausted, and even if she couldn’t get up and move, she really wasn’t willing to try and do anything of that scale quite yet.

Lapis didn’t even realize that she was falling asleep until she leaned her head back and passed out cold within a few seconds.

* * *

 

Peridot woke up well after three in the afternoon with a dry mouth and a slight groan. To say that she was disoriented would be an understatement, after barely getting more than a few hours of sleep at a time the last few days and suddenly getting nine.

She didn’t notice Lapis sprawled on the floor next to the couch until she very nearly stepped on her girlfriend, and tripped quickly moving her foot out of the way. The sleeping older woman didn’t seem to stir at all at Peridot falling right next to her, and the blonde couldn’t help but frown a little - she must have been really, really tired, and she couldn’t blame her. It had been an exhausting couple of days.

The younger of the two didn’t really have the heart to wake her up, but she definitely didn’t want Lapis to continue sleeping on the floor and risk getting a cold or a stiff back, so she geared up as much strength as she could and gently lifted the older woman. It was surprisingly easy even with her wounded ankle, considering she was  _ really _ petite and thin and Peridot was the one that did most of the lifting when it came to equipment. Walking out of the living room and down the hall was the hard part, though - she couldn’t really make it very far with her sprained ankle and limp.

One way or another, though, she did manage to lug Lapis back to the bedroom without having to wake her up. She was oddly impressed by the older woman’s ability to stay asleep when being carried clumsily - she wasn’t even a particularly heavy sleeper, so she must have been more exhausted than previously concluded. Peridot felt guilty about that; they should have split the distance and each taken a nap on the way home or something. Then maybe both of them would have been able to actually make it to the bed instead of just falling asleep in the car or on the floor.

Hungry but not really wanting to do anything, Peridot pulled herself onto the bed next to her girlfriend and pulled the older woman close, wrapping around her like a protective blanket and nestling her face into Lapis’ shirt. The faint sound of her beating heart was comforting, and she seemed to shift a little as she snoozed in order to hold the younger of the two close. Peridot made a slight humming sound and closed her eyes again - she may have just slept for nine hours, but she supposed there was no harm in taking another nap. Both of them had earned a day to just relax and sleep the hours away, in her honest opinion, and she was going to take advantage of it as much as she could.

* * *

 

Peridot woke up less than an hour later with a little bit of disappointment that she hadn’t been able to sleep much longer. Lapis was still fast asleep and had pressed a little closer, her face buried in blonde hair, and for a few moments she didn’t really have the heart to move.

The motivation came rather easily with the sudden ringing of her cell phone, and she sighed heavily before rolling out of bed and sliding the screen in order to answer, walking out of the room to avoid disturbing Lapis as she did so. “What’s up?” Peridot inquired as she held the device to her ear, more than a little relieved when the relaxed voice of Amethyst responded on the other end of the line. She’d been afraid that she would get a yelling Pearl - not that she wouldn’t understand that her friend was upset, of course, but she really didn’t feel like getting yelled at. Pearl liked things to be a certain way, and she liked things to get done, so she could get rather… loud when someone deviated from a plan. It was startling and headache inducing.

“Yo, P wants to know why you left without telling anybody. You didn’t really explain too great in the note you left.” Amethyst almost sounded kind of bored - not upset, which Peridot was relieved about. The more she thought on it, the guiltier she felt for just booking it in the middle of the night. “I mean, I’m sure you had a good reason or whatever, but she’s kinda upset.”

“Ugh,” the blonde groaned, walking into the living room in order to sit on the couch. “We’ve determined that the case is a bit too, uh, personal for Lapis. Because of the identity of the ghost. Um, turns out it’s actually her ex.” Peridot then glanced back towards the hallway, a bit worried that Lapis would wake up and question what was going on. “I’m sure you remember all the issues she had with Jasper, right? I’m really sorry, Amethyst, but this is just one we can’t do. I’ll send you all the footage and a list of exorcists that we trust and stuff, but you’re on your own for now.”

She could almost hear her friend shrug on the other end before she responded. “Nah, I understand. If you could send us the stuff you got, that’d be great.” Silence then followed for a few moments, and Amethyst cleared her throat almost uncomfortably. “Um, why do you think Jasper is in the beach house? I don’t think she ever actually went  _ inside, _ unless Lapis did that stereotypical babysitter thing and snuck her in while she was watching Steven overnight for some freaky sex--”

_ “That _ was a mental image I didn’t need.”

“-- and even then, they broke up  _ three years ago. _ Why would she be showing up at Lapis’ cousin’s house even after death? I don’t  _ get it.” _

Peridot shrugged slightly, stretching herself out on the couch and resting her head back on the armrest, wincing slightly at the discomfort it caused in her neck. “Jasper was  _ obsessed _ with her. Wouldn’t leave her alone until she moved all the way up here. We think that she tethered herself to the whole town and used Steven to lure Lapis, and she might not be too happy that she’s with me now. She’s messed up.”

“Hey, that’s my sister you’re talking about. She just… needed help and refused to get it.”

“I know, but that doesn’t excuse--,” Peridot was cut off by the sound of footsteps behind her and quickly glanced back, frowning when she didn’t see Lapis in the hallway. “I gotta go, Am. I think Lapis woke up and she probably needs me right now.”

“Alright. Bye, nerd.”

“Bye.”

Peridot hung up the phone and tucked it into the pocket of her sweatpants, rolling off the couch and onto her feet. With a frown, she looked down at her clothes - she’d been wearing the same thing for well over a day straight, and the thought that she probably ought to take a shower sometime soon. “Lapis?” she called out, entering the hallway and looking down the stretch - her girlfriend was probably just playing a trick on her, trying to lighten the mood. She wouldn’t put it past her, but she wasn’t exactly amused by the antics. “Come on, I don’t think this is really the right timing to be messing with me.”

When no reply came, she sighed heavily and started opening the doors down the hall, glancing in for a moment around the door and behind anywhere that could be squeezed into within a couple of seconds before moving in. There weren’t an awful lot of rooms in their house, so it didn’t take her that long to make it to the bedroom at the end…

And Lapis was still curled up under the covers of the bed, fast asleep. She hadn’t budged.

A confused frown appeared on the blonde’s face as she walked over to her snoozing girlfriend and checked her breathing. Deep and slow. She was definitely sleeping.

Peridot frowned, but shrugged it off as her mind playing tricks on her or the normal creaks of a house. She might have put a bit more thought into it, but as it stood she was a little desperate to take a shower. Maybe she’d even be nice and make dinner before she woke Lapis up.

A plan was already being formulated in her head as she walked to the bathroom, the phantom footsteps from before already faded almost completely from her busy mind.

She didn’t notice the shadow that appeared in the bedroom doorway to watch her.


	5. Chapter 5

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Yikes.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> CHRIST THIS TOOK A WHILE SOrry

By the time Lapis woke up, the sun had already set and the house was enveloped in darkness. She groaned slightly, frustrated with herself for messing up her own sleep schedule, before forcing herself to get up and stretch - maybe she’d stay awake long enough to go to bed at a reasonable hour the next night. She supposed she could do that, even though the lethargic weight of having slept for seventeen hours straight was making her want to curl back under the covers and go for  _ another _ seventeen. Why hadn’t Peridot woken her up? Had she  _ really _ looked that tired?

She rolled out of bed with a small yawn and stretched, glancing at the glaring red letters of the digital clock by the bed - it was about eleven o’clock at night. Twenty four hours ago, she’d dragged Peridot out of Beach City in a panicked rush. It didn’t feel like it had been that long, but that might just be because she’d been sleeping since pretty much the moment they got home. Not exactly the smartest move on her part, really. Lapis really wished that her girlfriend had woken her up at some point, at least earlier in the evening so she wouldn’t have to pull another all nighter (all dayer?) to fix her sleep. She was moving her way towards an early death at this rate.

Of course, now that she wasn’t panicked and was somewhat rested - if  _ way _ overly rested - she felt guilty about just running away with nothing but a vague note for explanation. She wasn’t exactly proud of the fact that she had just effectively abandoned Steven and her friends and left them all alone with the angry vengeful ghost of her jealous and obsessive ex fiancee, putting them in harm’s way so that she could get out of there. Lapis was a little afraid that Jasper would cause some more supernatural trouble, maybe cause some real harm in another attempt to force her running back.

When they’d first broken up, she had wanted to go back, just because after seven years of the relationship - six of which were a living hell - she really didn’t know what to do with her newfound freedom, and she found herself agonizing over the end of the longest relationship she’d ever been in, and with separation came a remembrance of everything she’d loved about Jasper while they were together. But with support from those close to her, eventually she had managed to work past it.

She’d stopped missing Jasper a little while before she started dating Peridot and even felt sick at the idea of returning to that abusive mess of a relationship, but evidently the bigger woman had never moved on, and now that she was dead, she’d never get the chance to. Lapis felt… bad for her. Pity could be dangerous, though, so she did her best to steel herself against the faint ache in her chest. She could not feel sorry for her abuser. She would not feel sorry for her abuser. It would be fatal to allow the floodgates to open and any feeling but hatred and fear towards the situation to move in.

With a small sigh, Lapis ran a hand through her hair to try and settle down the stray waves that made up her bedhead before walking out of the bedroom. A light was on in the kitchen, so that was where she went, although the silence in the house was enough to make a concerned frown appear across her features. She hadn’t seen or felt Peridot in bed, and usually she would be wide awake screaming obscenities at some game until at least two in the morning if not asleep by ten. Quiet was unusual.

A piece of paper on the table was what caught her attention, and she quickly picked it up in one hand, blue eyes quickly and tiredly skimming over her girlfriend’s small, messy handwriting. “Hey Lapis, I have a few errands to run because we’re completely out of food and medicine and some other stuff. I should be back sometime before midnight, so if you wake up and I’m not here, don’t freak out. Try not to light the house on fire or do something stupid. ~Peri.”

Ah. The worry quickly vanished from her chest, although she was a little confused as to why her girlfriend had gone to do errands so late - though she shrugged it off as she walked over to the living room, plopping herself onto the couch and tucking the note into her pocket. Peridot had a tendency to forget about things until they were absolutely needed, and then she would rush out to take care of it. One time, she’d gone grocery shopping at three in the morning because their supply of ice cream, Mountain Dew, and Doritos had finally dwindled enough that it was necessary to buy more.

Lapis stretched slightly and grabbed the television remote off of the end table next to the couch and pressed the button to turn on the electronic, relaxing into the cushions as she flipped through the channels in an attempt to find something to watch. Eventually, she settled for a late night rerun of  _ Camp Pining Hearts, _ giving a soft scoff when she realized that the episode was one of her least favorites but unwilling to continue to try and find something different. She only needed to distract herself until Peridot got home, anyway, and then they could do… other things.

A little while after eleven thirty, she had zoned out completely and only half focused on the unfolding plot points onscreen. Aside from a couple of comments about the camera work and characterization out loud and the low volume of the television set, it was pretty quiet in the house… so when the sound of the radio in the bedroom suddenly exploded through the house with some  _ extremely _ startling heavy metal, it scared the shit out of her. Lapis quickly bolted to her feet and instinctively took several steps back further away from the hallway, heart racing in her chest and blue eyes wide.

Hesitantly, the young woman rose to her feet and started slowly walking down the hall. Her heart didn’t return to its previous pace, still pounding harshly in her chest and now accompanied by a sick, painful feeling of dread. She seriously doubted that Peridot was playing a trick on her - her girlfriend wasn’t  _ that _ much of a mischievous asshole - so there were really only two options here; either it was an intruder, or it was a ghost. She wasn’t sure which one she dreaded more, considering their house had not been haunted when they first moved in or even when they left for Beach City.

The bedroom door was still open and the bed was still unmade, just as she’d left it, which did little to assuage her fears. Really, the only thing that was any different was the blasting radio on Lapis’ dresser. Tense and ready to run, she walked slowly over to the device and clicked the button on the top to turn it off, giving a soft sigh of relief when silence replaced noise. The one thing that confused her most was the choice of music - neither she nor Peridot listened to heavy metal, so it wasn’t like it could’ve just turned on because of an alarm or something to the last station they’d listened to.

Lapis stayed still a moment, hand still on the radio and posture tense as her mind raced in an attempt to find a reasonable and non-supernatural explanation, before giving a heavy sigh and turning on her heel to face the bed. Maybe it  _ had _ just been an alarm Peridot set to wake her up before she managed to sleep for twenty four hours straight, set to the loudest possible volume and station so that there would be no trouble getting her lazy ass out of bed. That was the most logical explanation, anyway, and she’d just ask for confirmation to make herself feel better as soon as her girlfriend got home.

She busied herself with tucking the sheets further underneath the mattress and yanking the blanket up to a somewhat neat position, part of her worried that Peridot would be a little annoyed if she got home to find the bed unmade and Lapis just watching television - most of her, though, was just looking for something to occupy her hands so she wouldn’t have to think much.

Just as she got to a point where she was satisfied, the radio began blaring again, and she jumped before quickly twisting her body to stare at the general area of the stereo. She shivered as a burst of adrenaline made her heart give a cold beat. Lapis forced herself to take a calming breath before walking to the electronic and turning it off with a forceful jab at the power button.  _ It was just the snooze, _ she made herself think in an attempt to be reasonable - but just to be careful, she reached for the cord of the radio and yanked, feeling a little bit of relief when it unplugged.

She turned to leave the room, running a hand through her hair as a small sigh pushed past her throat. One of the first things she thought to do was grab her phone and quickly text Peridot, but after reaching a hand in each of the pockets on her sweatpants and finding nothing there, she remembered that she’d left it on the dashboard of the van, and her girlfriend had probably taken said van shopping with her. Lapis groaned loudly and walked to the nearest wall, thudding her head against the painted plaster in frustration. Fine. She could wait, even if paranoia was going to be eating her up the entire time.

She made her way back to the couch where she had started her night and flopped into a somewhat relaxed position, scoffing slightly when she realized that  _ Camp Pining Hearts _ had been replaced by  _ Gremlins. _ She would be annoyed at a Christmas movie being on in the middle of October, but she supposed she didn’t really mind. It’d be better to watch this than some horror movie at the moment - she’d been more than a little freaked out by the radio, as hesitant as she was to admit it. It would do her good to relax until her girlfriend got home.

Unfortunately, she didn’t get to, because within twenty minutes a loud  _ pop _ and the sound of glass shattering from the bathroom interrupted her increasingly lethargic state. It didn’t startle her, as the volume wasn’t necessarily as deafening as the radio, but dread settled into her chest rather easily as she forced herself to roll off the couch and rise to her feet. 

Lapis slowly eased herself into the hallway and turned the knob on the door, opening it carefully. She glanced around the darkened bathroom for a moment before a cold breeze hit her face, and she shivered, glancing up at the tiny window that offered daylight but not a way for Peeping Toms to glance in. The problem, then, became  _ very _ obvious - something had broken the window, broken glass creating uneven and jagged teeth ready to chew her to pieces.

**That** was something that couldn’t have happened on its own, or been preprogrammed to happen. It couldn’t have been hot air, because the bathroom was usually several degrees colder than the rest of the house to begin with -- and though that could crack or break glass, Lapis wasn’t entirely sure if it could completely shatter a window.

Her first instinct was to run away and get out of the house, sprint down to the grocery store and catch up to Peridot and go somewhere they couldn’t be tracked, despite the knowledge in the back of her mind that it would be fruitless. Lapis turned quickly and took one step towards the door, only to have it slam shut in her face before she could leave.

The sound of a clearing throat came from the bathroom mirror.

* * *

 

It was just after midnight when Peridot pulled into the driveway and parked the van, opening the door before slipping out and hopping onto the pavement. The first thing she noticed as she walked to the back of the van was that the porch light - which she rather clearly remembered leaving on before she left because Lapis never actually remembered to check it when she was out of the house - was not flooding light into the driveway and the tiny front yard. A small frown pushed at the edge of her lips, but she shrugged it off and grabbed two bags of groceries anyway. She’d just have to turn it back on before she walked back outside.

The house was still quiet with the exception of the television on a low volume - she couldn’t remember whether or not she’d left it on, so she was quick to assume that Lapis was still asleep. Okay,  _ that _ was a little worrying; the older woman normally didn’t sleep much, five or six hours at a time maybe, so it was unusual for her to be this late in waking up.

Peridot shrugged and set the bags on the kitchen table, flicking the lightswitch on before she stepped back out onto the front porch. Satisfied with the small amount of light that now made it easier to see, she hopped down from the porch, but before she could make her way back to the van she spotted something very… different and concerning out of the corner of her eye.

The window to the bathroom was open - no, not open. Broken.

The first thought that popped into Peridot’s mind was that somebody had forcibly entered the house in the couple hours she was away. The second thought was not so much a coherent realization as it was a spike of worry and fear running from her heart and into the rest of her body.

Lapis was unsafe. What if she was hurt? What if she was seriously injured or dead, all because Peridot decided to go out and go grocery shopping and refill meds before she could wake up? Though it was probably a bad idea to go inside again before she was certain it was safe, the blonde took off sprinting back up the pathway and onto the porch, closing her fist around the doorknob so tight she was partially afraid it might dent and trying to wrench open the door…

But it had been locked while she was outside, by something inside the house. She struggled with it for a few moments before giving up, slamming her fist into the wood with a frustrated growl. She  **needed** to get back inside! It wasn’t crossing her mind at the moment that it might be a good idea to call the police before she did anything by herself - all she could think about was the many, many negative scenarios of what could be happening to Lapis right now.

Especially because the door was locked. If the door was locked, whoever had broken in didn’t want her to walk in and stop them. And if her girlfriend had already gotten out of the house and to somewhere safe, then she would have called, or waited for her, or  _ something. _ Her breathing becoming a bit more shallow and her heart racing, Peridot looked around the yard and bit down on her lower lip; mild pain usually made it a bit easier to think, and she  **desperately** needed to clear her mind and come up with a reasonable solution.

If she didn’t…

She shook her head. She wouldn’t think on that now.

The first option that flashed through her mind was breaking another window, but she’d already done that once in the last couple of days and she didn’t want to test her luck and slice her hand open or something. That wouldn’t help anything. There was no way she could break a door or break through a wall - she was pretty strong, but not  **that** strong - so unless she couldn’t think of anything else, breaking into the house was out of the picture.

The second was just to unlock the door and walk right in. Her hand reached down to the pocket of her jeans, and she groaned when she realized that her keys weren’t there - of course, she’d been an idiot and left them with the bags on the table. But Lapis had insisted on keeping a spare key somewhere outside just in case something like this happened, didn’t she? So somewhere in the general area was her ticket inside -  _ where _ it was, though, was bound to take her a while to figure out. So she sucked in a deep breath to calm herself as much as possible before getting started searching.

* * *

 

Lapis hesitated, and then slowly turned, taking her time and trying to keep her shaky breathing even despite the erratic pounding of her heart. Before her gaze even reached the bathroom mirror, she knew who she would see there. She could  _ feel _ the same oppressive presence that she’d grown all too familiar with; she knew that with everything going on there was no other person who could be haunting herself. She squeezed her eyes shut as she finished her movement, and clenched her fists to try and relax herself before forcing them open.

Jasper didn’t really look much different in death than in life.

She was still just over seven feet tall. She still had fluffy white hair that extended to her lower back. Even the pale scars across her dark skin were still visible, as well as the golden color of her eyes, which were narrowed towards Lapis in a glare. Her muscles were bulky enough to make anybody question how she could’ve been killed by anything; her aura was still just as terrifying, perhaps even moreso now that she knew that she couldn’t fight back. The only difference, really, was the translucent nature of her appearance and the billowing shadows that surrounded her.

“What do you want from me?” she managed to speak slowly, her voice coming out a little more shaky than she’d initially intended. The question, she knew, would probably be considered rhetorical; she knew perfectly well what Jasper wanted.  _ Her. _ Jasper had wanted her since they broke up. Jasper wanted her to continue their relationship and to never have eyes for anybody else. Jasper wanted to keep her to herself and never let anybody else lay their hands on her. Lapis  _ knew _ this, and she couldn’t believe that it was still an issue this long after they split… and this long after her ex’s death.

And rhetorical it was, as the ghost not only neglected to answer her question, but also shot back with another. “What do you see in that worthless nerd?” she demanded, taking a step out of the mirror to tower above Lapis even more than usual by standing on the counter. The human took a few steps back until she ran into the wall, eyes wide as she stared up at her dead ex fiancee. For several moments, she was a little to afraid to even speak, and Jasper took advantage of that by talking with venom in her voice again. “You left me and ran to  _ her? _ She can’t do anything, Lazuli. She can’t handle you - she can’t provide for you and keep you happy like I could’ve.”

“She can do more than you can,” Lapis snapped in response, her girlfriend being insulted breaking her somewhat out of her terror so that she could step forward towards Jasper. The ghost didn’t even budge, looking down at her in the very same condescending and daring tone that kept her from leaving for so long. Her breath hitched in her throat, but she stood her ground. “She’s sweet and smart and funny and she makes me happy. That’s more than you can say. I was with you for seven years, and you never made me anything but miserable, and I’m pretty sure that I never made  _ you _ anything but miserable. What we had wasn’t healthy - it wasn’t for most of the time we were together. I’m glad I left you. I’m glad I’m with her.” Almost as soon as she stopped talking, the glare on Jasper’s face was enough to make her afraid once more; she took a step back again, but continued to watch her dead ex with a cold stare and her fists clenched at her sides.

“I told you to come back. I told you we could make it work,” the taller of the two responded in a low growl, stepping off the counter in order to move a little closer to her. “I’m the only one that can handle you for as long as I did, Lapis. Eventually you’re going to have a mental health day bad enough that it scares her away. Eventually you’re going to lash out and snap back and make her hate you. We could’ve gotten back together and fixed our relationship, but you kept turning me away, and now someday you’re going to be all alone again.”

Lapis opened her mouth to try and give a snarky response, but before she could a searing heat developed on her cheek and travelled downward. It took her a moment to recognize that a shadowy hand was now cupping her chin, which effectively shut her up and allowed Jasper to keep speaking - she might have pushed her away if she thought it would be effective.

“I want you to join me. Being dead is so much better than being alive. We can find some way to move on to whatever’s next together so we never have to be apart,” the ghost pleaded, her amber eyes wide and begging to the point that Lapis would feel her heart melt if she wasn’t effectively being asked to commit suicide. “Peridot can’t love you like I do. Nobody in this world can ever give you what I can give you. I’ll be stable - I’ll be  _ there _ for as long as we both exist. Just join me in being dead and you’ll never have to be afraid of being alone again. You’ll never have to worry about somebody uncovering the shit you pulled before you were with me and leaving you.”

One bad thing about dating somebody for seven years - they grow to know things better left forgotten. Lapis finally found the strength to move away, sidestepping through Jasper’s grasp and towards the door, one hand already reaching for the handle. “No,” she spoke in a tone that was a lot less solid than she would have liked it to be, and she wished that her trembling hands would stop shaking. “No, Jasper. I don’t care what you promise me. I’ll never be with you again. No matter what you say to me and no matter what you do to me, I’m not going to stop my life just when it’s looking up to be with my crazy ex that can’t even let things go after she dies. Just leave. Move on to the next step - find some peace or something, because there’s no way you’re going to talk me into anything.”

Finally, finally, she reached the door, and wrenching it open with one hand she ducked into the hallway and began to sprint down as fast as her legs would carry her.

* * *

 

The key, as it turned out, was underneath the solitary flower pot on the porch. Peridot wasted no time in jamming it in the door and quickly entering the house, a quick cry of her girlfriend’s name the first thing that pushed out of her mouth. Her heart raced in her chest, and she took off running down the hallway before anything else. She needed to check the bedroom; she needed to see if Lapis was in there, because she certainly wasn’t in the kitchen or the living room, and see if she was alright.

If she wasn’t, the technician wasn’t entirely sure what she would do. Maybe she’d pull a Batman and become a vigilante of justice to try and avenge her dead beloved’s death. A halfway hysterical giggle left her - she was starting to become delirious from fear, she concluded.

Before she could reach the bedroom, though, the bathroom door sprung open and she nearly collided with the very black and blue haired woman she’d been so worried about. Peridot was nearly knocked to the ground, but Lapis didn’t even flinch, taking a tight hold on her wrist and dragging her the rest of the way down the hallway - Peridot didn’t think she’d ever seen her girlfriend move this fast. Or herself, for that matter.

“What’s going on?” she managed to articulate as the older woman dragged her out of the house, though the pure, unadulterated  _ fear _ present on Lapis’ face when she looked at her was enough to make her wish she could take it back. Peridot pressed her lips together and allowed her girlfriend to pull her into the front yard, and was almost a little shaken up by how tightly and suddenly ‘the older woman grabbed onto her shoulders. She was…  _ shaking. _ The blonde wasn’t sure she’d ever seen the native Hawaiian this terrified.

“She followed us. There’s no getting out of it. She followed us, and she wants me dead, and I… I don’t know what to do, Peri. I don’t know what to do.”

Peridot was about to open her mouth and say something reassuring, but before she could, Lapis had already burst into tears and crushed her into a hug. Startled, the blonde tensed momentarily, but quickly lowered herself and her girlfriend to the grass of the lawn and just held Lapis close.

For the moment, she just needed to be solid and present and let the older woman calm down. She was sure that they’d be able to come up with something soon.


	6. Chapter 6

It took Lapis a long time to stop crying. She clung to her girlfriend and sobbed like a baby for a solid five minutes, and in hindsight she supposed she was lucky that Jasper hadn’t decided to just leave the house and give her a bit more ‘motivation’ while she was vulnerable. Terror and frustration and sorrow had combined into an awful cocktail of terrible that left her emotionally wrecked, and even when she was finished completely ruining the shoulder of Peridot’s shirt, anxiety and paranoia regarding the situation was still twisting her heart in her chest enough to make her feel physically sick.

This was fucked up. It was all just so fucked up.

Eventually, she did manage to calm down from blubbering like a baby into just sniffles. She didn’t cry very often, and took pride in that, so she was fairly certain that just the fact that the waterworks had occurred were a sign that everything was affecting her very,  _ very _ negatively. Lapis was comforted by Peridot’s fingers running through her hair and small, reassuring noises that left her girlfriend every so often, but… cold dread had still made a home in her chest, and the attempts on Peridot’s part to calm her down only made her feel guilty.

If something were to happen to her girlfriend, she would never be able to forgive herself. The blonde deserved so much better - she deserved to be with somebody whose very presence wasn’t putting her in danger, and as much as Lapis loathed to admit it, that was exactly what was happening. She was placing her girlfriend’s life on the line because her stupid dead ex wouldn’t figure out that maybe, just maybe, it would be best to move on to the next life and stop ruining what someone else had.

She supposed she shouldn’t be surprised. Jasper had never been the best at seeing past her own issues. Lapis knew that the gargantuan woman had suffered trauma in her early years thanks to the death of her mother in a situation caused by her own childlike recklessness, but for her entire life Jasper had stubbornly refused to move on. Lapis had thought she could help, which was a big part of the reason their romantic relationship ever started in the first place, but she’d only ended up making things worse somehow with her low patience and tendency to get a snippish tone. Jasper had limited patience for her sass and disrespect - Lapis could never seem to get everything under control and put herself together, so week after week went by dealing with violence and bruises and often being too sore to walk. She’d been in the hospital multiple times as a result of her ex’s temper. She didn’t want to go back to it.

It really didn’t help that she’d been conditioned to blame herself for her past and the entire time dating her; Jasper had used it to keep her under control. She liked to blame Lapis for everything that went wrong inside and outside of their relationship; most of it had never leaved their little apartment and what did get out was rarely brought up to anybody besides each other and doctors. Jasper had convinced her that nobody would ever love her if they knew the things that she knew; that everybody but the brute would just end up leaving her eventually if the full extent of her trauma came up again or if the losses she suffered as a result of being unable to handle anything came back to bite her in the ass.

Shit. She was crying again.

This time, however, she pushed Peridot away when she tried to pull her closer. She felt guilty about it as soon as she saw the hurt flash across her girlfriend’s face, but she didn’t dwell on it; she couldn’t afford to dwell on it, even if she was in hysterics and that made her a little bit harder to understand or take seriously. She tried to focus on breathing and calming her shaking, but she really only succeeded in making her shivers worse and causing herself to hyperventilate. She couldn’t breathe; she couldn’t think; she couldn’t do anything and the world just felt so wide open and empty and she needed to be held and helped but she didn’t want Peridot to get hurt and it was all too much.

“You - you have to - you have to -,” she spoke, unable to get anything besides half sentences stammered past her lips thanks to her chattering jaw and frazzled mind. It was almost too difficult to get her bearings in order and actually speak intelligently, giving off the illusion that she was calming down somewhat while still trying to relax her helicopter heart. “You have to leave, Peridot. Jasper’s not going to give up until she gets what she wants, and it’s too dangerous to be around me - I - I need to finish this case off by myself, nothing can happen to you.”

“Lapis…” Peridot began in a soft tone, moving forward - Lapis didn’t let her pull her into another embrace, taking a step backwards. The blonde seemed to be willing to respect her boundaries, but not without a sad look in her bright green eyes. “Lapis, if it’s too dangerous for me, it’s too dangerous for you, too. I’m not going anywhere… I’m not leaving you alone with the ghost of your dead ex fiancee, I don’t care how fucked up and homicidal she is.”

Even though she was frustrated by this entire situation and how stubborn Peridot could be, Lapis wasn’t about to admit that her heart melted at the promise she wouldn’t be left alone - but still, she wanted to fight her girlfriend on it. She wanted what was best for the younger woman, and she didn’t particularly care how much she herself got hurt in the process of protecting her. She would face Jasper’s wrath a thousand times over if it meant keeping Peridot safe from harm and somewhere she would be protected from any angry ghost that ever might want to touch her.

“Please, Peri. Please just leave. I love you so much and you’re not safe as long as you’re with me,” Lapis begged, well aware of how pitiful her voice was coming off as but not able to find it within her to care. “I would rather have just me be in trouble than the both of us. I - I promise I’ll make it up to you as soon as the exorcism is finished and everything is safe again.” She took a shaky breath, only the occasional tear now slipping down her cheeks - each new one, she wiped away quickly. “There’s no sense in both of us constantly being in peril if she’s only after one.”

“But won’t it be twice as dangerous and emotionally taxing for you if she doesn’t have somebody else around to split her rage with?” Peridot asked, watching her body language carefully before closing the distance between them and gently taking hold of her hands. Lapis didn’t pull away this time, finding that she really needed the physical reassurance. “This is all having an affect on you, and I don’t need to be a genius to figure that out. I - I haven’t left you in any of your breakdowns yet, and I’m not going to leave you now.”

The elder of the two investigators opened her mouth with the intent to argue with her girlfriend, but instead of intelligent debate a high pitched whine tore past her throat of its own accord. Before she could stop herself, she threw her arms around her short girlfriend and began sniffling again, trying not to start crying as one small hand rubbed soothing circles into her back. She didn’t know what she’d done to deserve such an amazing woman willing to be in a romantic relationship with her, but whatever it was, she was damn glad that she did it.

“It’s going to be okay,” Peridot promised with a heavy amount of determination in her voice, swaying back and forth in a way that relaxed Lapis even further. “We’re going to be okay. We’re going to get this stupid jealous ghost out of our house, and keep you safe, and keep me safe. I’ll call Bismuth in two days when she’s in again, and until then we’ll stick together and protect each other.”

Lapis was nearly appeased by that, but she doubted her ability to keep Peridot safe for two days when she couldn’t even keep her from harm for a night. Her gaze flitted down to her girlfriend’s still splinted ankle, and she might have cried further if she had any energy left to do it. “Okay,” she responded in a quiet voice after a few moments of silence, more because she knew she couldn’t change her girlfriend’s mind no matter how much she argued than anything else. “But if it gets too dangerous, promise me you’ll leave until everything passes over. Please.”

Peridot hesitated and watched her face for a couple of seconds, but eventually she shifted to hold Lapis even closer. The older of the two allowed it to happen, resting her head against her girlfriend’s sternum and closing her eyes. “Okay, I promise,” the technician responded with a sigh, giving her a gentle squeeze. “But  _ you _ have to promise that you’ll try to stay safe, too. I know there’s no way to remove you from the situation too, but I don’t want anything preventable to happen. That wouldn’t help anybody. Except maybe Jasper, and I don’t think either of us wants that.”

She snorted, but nodded in all seriousness. She would try, at the very least. They both would.

* * *

 

Peridot made it her primary mission for the rest of the night to make sure that Lapis wasn’t triggered into another fit of hysterics and miniature panic attack. Luckily, their resident asshole ghost seemed to know when to back off a little bit, so she had some time to make sure that her girlfriend was calm and stable - not that that really took a long time, because although Lapis seemed to be pretty reluctant to be separated from Peridot for even a moment or step foot in the bathroom (“Honestly, what are you going to do, piss  _ outside?” _ she had demanded, to which the answer had been yes), she was also a lot calmer than she had been earlier and ten times more tired and melancholy.

They ended up laying on the couch and watching DVDs of  _ Camp Pining Hearts _ until dawn, holding each other well after the sun had risen over the horizon. At nine in the morning, Peridot yawned heavily, tired from the eventful night and all the time she spent awake, and she was only about half aware of Lapis shifting in order to look down at her.

“Do you want to get some sleep?” the older woman asked in a voice that sounded tired and probably betrayed something she was trying to hide, and Peridot hummed slightly as Lapis’ thin fingers combed her bangs back off of her forehead and thin lips pressed against the back of her head. “Because I’m kind of tired too. I could use some shut eye, and who knows if we’ll be sleeping much at night with Jasper poking her ugly head around for the next few days until we can get to Bismuth.”

“I can’t argue with that logic,” Peridot replied sleepily. She was not influenced by the fact that her eyelids currently felt like they weighed thirty pounds and just wanted to close, she told herself; she just thought that her girlfriend was bringing up very valid points and they had both earned a little bit of sleep for the time being. “But our lives are going to be hell when we try to actually fix our sleep schedule and live like normal people again. Jesus, what are our clients going to say when they can’t reach us because we were passed out at two in the afternoon?”

“We’ll change our hours. We own our own company, we can do whatever we want,” Lapis spoke with a sniff, nestling her face against Peridot’s chest and closing her eyes. She was so tired - the younger investigator felt her heart lurch. She had slept so long, but there was only so much emotional turmoil she could handle, as this was beginning to make clear. “And if we get to bed early in the morning every single day, we should usually be up by the evening… which means that we can still let our clients call us at a sane hour…”

“Okay, okay, Jesus, I can’t process it when you’re logical,” Peridot managed a smile at her girlfriend before pressing a kiss against her cheek, earning a small hum in return. She made Lapis happy and feel safe. That was enough to make her more than a little bit smug at the moment, because she was well aware that it was a rather hard thing to do. “Come on, let’s move to the bed.” She pushed herself with quite a bit of difficulty out of the position of little spoon so that she could roll over onto the floor, but was caught by surprise with a somewhat offended squeak when her girlfriend tightened her grip around her middle in order to pull her back to the couch. “I thought you wanted to get some sleep?”

“I do, but I don’t wanna move.” The last word was drawn out, Lapis burying her face in the back of Peridot’s neck and squeezing her firmly but not painfully. “Can’t we just sleep here? People sleep on their couches all the time,” she pleaded feebly, lifting her face to give Peridot a brief and chaste kiss on the lips that really did the job in convincing the younger of the two to let her have her way. Whatever. Anywhere she was sleeping with Lapis was comfy enough in her book.

“Fine,” she responded with a roll of her eyes anyway, but tightened her grip a little to let her know that she wasn’t really upset. “But if we wake up in the morning and our necks and backs are all stiff, just know that it was your fault.” She gave up on trying to stay awake then, letting her eyes close and nestling against her girlfriend comfortably.

Lapis huffed in response, but when she spoke it was evident from her tone that the criticism hadn’t really upset her. “Just like everything else that goes wrong in this house,” she huffed before yawning melodramatically and stretching, unintentionally whapping Peridot in the nose with her arm as she did so. The blonde’s eyes opened quickly and stared at the older woman as she rapidly tried to apologize. “Oh, my god, I’m sorry. There’s not enough room for that.”

Instead of giving an intelligent response, Peridot just rubbed her nose and stuck her tongue out at her girlfriend, earning a slight giggle. That was enough to make her smug, and she gave a slight yawn before going back to trying to sleep.

* * *

 

It only took two or three hours for Lapis to wake up again with a heavy sigh. The sun had risen high in the sky, and Peridot still snoozed peacefully against her with her face relaxed into the resting bitch face she took on so often. For a little while, the older of the two was willing to forget about everything that had happened recently, and she was perfectly content to just relax on the couch and watch her girlfriend sleep peacefully.

Daylight was something of a blessing. For reasons unknown to her, ghosts generally tried to keep their activity limited to nighttime; whether that was because they were trying to keep up with stereotypes or because of some strange scientific reason she hadn’t looked into yet, she didn’t know. But it was good; it meant that she had all day to enjoy without Jasper rearing her head and making everything miserable once more. The silence of the house seemed to agree with her, only the clock in the kitchen making soft  _ tic-toc _ noises and a general feeling of quiet peace embracing the resting couple.

Lapis thought about maybe getting up and making breakfast, but was dissuaded from that idea easily when a peacefully sleeping Peridot nudged a little closer to her and grumbled softly in her sleep. It might be best to wake her up before their sleep schedules could get really and truly bad, but at the moment Lapis just didn’t have the heart to; she could wait an extra hour or two. Sleeping in until nine or ten was more reasonable than getting up at eight without work as an excuse, right?

She relaxed and watched the ceiling fan make its lazy rounds instead of watching, another sigh escaping her. Not for the first time since this mess started, Lapis felt guilty about being the cause for so much stress. As much as she tried to tell herself that she didn’t control Jasper’s actions, living or dead, she still had the tendency to blame herself instilled into her from being in that messy relationship for seven years. Those were stubborn, trauma induced and conditioned thoughts and beliefs, and she knew that they weren’t likely to go anywhere anytime soon. They would probably die with her, sooner or later.

Hopefully later. She couldn’t stand being the reason Peridot was sad - she didn’t want to leave her any sooner than she needed to, even if her various mental illnesses pleaded with her to and prodded her and her crazy dead ex fiancee was now stalking her, even though she probably should have moved right along by now. It was fifty shades of frustrating, and Lapis wanted nothing more than to punch that ghost right in the fucking face - both literally and figuratively.

She was ripped out of her thoughts with a yawn and slight groan from Peridot, and Lapis’ blue eyes flicked back to her girlfriend. Sleepily, the younger woman glanced up at her, and a small smile appeared on her face - that alone was enough to make Lapis’ heart melt and all of those bad thoughts disappear from her mind for the moment.

“Good morning, sleepy head,” the older of the two murmured softly, pressing a light kiss against the top of Peridot’s head and receiving a sleepy and content sigh in response. “I think we should get up and do things. If we actually want to be productive members of society, anyway.”

“Fuck society and fuck being productive,” the smaller woman declared in a sleepy groan, pulling Lapis’ arm over her face to block the light and any other natural elements from reaching her eyes. “I just want to lay here with you all day. It’s nice and safe and warm. And I don’t have to move.” Peridot was not a morning person, and never had been, so Lapis wasn’t really surprised by the opposition she was met with; instead of arguing further, though, she allowed her girlfriend to be difficult and just curled up a little tighter around her, perfectly fine with just relaxing here for now.

“Okay, we can stay here until you’re ready to get up,” she spoke in a tone that was intentionally and jokingly condescending, and she didn’t need to look down at her girlfriend to know that she was rolling her eyes in response. “But you’re holding me back, so that means it’s your turn for breakfast. I mean, that’s only fair.” As soon as she got done talking, she got an elbow to the gut that wasn’t really meant to harm her, and she couldn’t help but laugh a little at the attempt.

Silence enveloped the small house after a few moments, though, the two lovers just laying in place and enjoying each other’s warmth and company. Lapis listened in silence to Peridot’s slow and steady breathing, trying to adjust her own so that their breathing matched and they were completely in sync. That was a habit she still held from the time when she was a child - speeding up or slowing down her breathing in accordance with whoever was nearby and important to her. A little weird, maybe, but she had long considered it just another one of her many quirks… and this one actually wasn’t harmful to anybody, not even herself, so she saw no reason to change it.

Unfortunately, her peace couldn’t last long in her mind, which kept wandering to her current situation with Jasper and the safety and happiness of the woman in her arms. Not for the first time, she thought about coming clean with Peridot about her past mistakes so that her ghostly ex couldn’t just spill the beans and make it look like she was hiding things to look more datable; but her girlfriend was just so peaceful and calm against her that she couldn’t see herself opening her mouth and possibly losing her when everything was already so hectic and they had a well deserved moment of tranquility.

Eventually, Peridot shifted and made to get up, so Lapis easily let go and let her roll off the couch. She watched as her girlfriend landed on her back on the ground - and as soon as she was certain that the younger woman was without serious injury, she snorted and let out a soft giggle. “You were supposed to stop me from falling,” the blonde complained, her tone too late to be actually upset, and Lapis rolled her eyes before rolling off to land on top of her. The sound that Peridot made was a weird combination of a gurgle and a grunt, and the older woman wasn’t blind to the small sock to the shoulder she received. She was a little underweight, so she was sure it didn’t hurt.

“Yeah, well, you weren’t supposed to roll and fall in the first place,” the older woman responded with a shrug, getting off of her girlfriend with a small grin. Peridot stuck her tongue out at her and followed suit, sitting up before hopping to her feet with a little bit of guilty. “Getting old?”

“Shut up, I just had you slam on me with all of your weight,” Peridot rolled her eyes, and Lapis let out a small chuckle in response. “Come on, we might as well get something productive done.” She reached her hand out to help Lapis up, and though the older woman wrinkled her nose she took the offered extremity easily and rolled to her feet.

* * *

 

Though the day was spent in relative peace and quietness, sunset was faced with grim expressions and no small amount of anxiety. Evening meant that Jasper was going to return, and Lapis and Peridot could kiss their lack of drama goodbye.

The older of the two seemed to become more and more irritable as she sat on the porch and glared at the orange of the sky. Peridot walked outside and sat next to her, gently resting one hand on Lapis’, feeling ever so slightly relieved when her girlfriend flipped her hand over and laced their fingers together, giving a small squeeze. “It’s going to be okay, you know,” the blonde murmured softly as Lapis leaned on her, resting her head on her shoulder with a heavy sigh.

“I just don’t know how long we’re going to be able to hold out,” was the quiet response, and Peridot gently wrapped her arm around her girlfriend’s waist. “I could barely make it through dating her, and with the breakup and her following me until I shook her off and everything…” She shook her head as she paused in order to sigh once more. “Now she’s dead, and latched onto me. We thought that ghosts can just attach to one place, but we were wrong. I don’t know what to do. I don’t know how to deal with any of this or make it better, I don’t know how to protect us.”

“You didn’t really know how to protect us when she was still alive,” Peridot pointed out quietly, and almost flinched away from the glare that was pointed at her. “Look, I’m just trying to be logical. You ran from her pretty consistently before she died - maybe that’s why she was never able to move on. You just broke it off and started running, and any communication you’ve had with her since has been mostly toxic and angry. I mean, maybe if you tried being more patient and standing your ground tonight - maybe if we both did - you could get through to her and get her to leave you alone.”

“Her temper won’t let anybody be patient, me or her,” Lapis sighed heavily, turning her gaze back to the colors of the sky with tired dark blue eyes. Peridot silently hoped that she would at least try to get a little bit of sleep tonight. “It doesn’t matter what I do or say. It doesn’t matter what she does or says. We’ve been at an impasse since before we even broke up. We haven’t been able to reach any sort of compromise over the last three years, so why would we be able to now?”

“Most dead people, deep inside, want to move on. She probably does now. But she’s too much of a stubborn asshole, excuse my French, to see it.” Peridot shrugged - she wasn’t that knowledgeable on psychology, but she did look a lot into the tendencies of ghosts. Usually, they didn’t know they were dead, they had unfinished business, or they just wanted to protect something; in any case they would always want to move on if they got the chance to. She supposed Jasper would fit into the ‘unfinished business’ territory, if ‘wanting to get back together with her ex fiancee’ could be considered unfinished business. Ugh, it probably was in Jasper’s eyes.

“Yeah, well, I don’t know how you think we can convince her to move on. She won’t, she’s got a weird obsessive streak and doesn’t want to listen to anybody about it. She wouldn’t get professional help no matter how much I asked her to.” Lapis sighed heavily, pressing a light kiss against Peridot’s cheek before rising to her feet and stretching. “Should we try to get some sleep? I don’t know if there’s any point in it. She’s going to wake us up at some point trying to convince me to join her in death.”

Peridot shrugged and following her in standing up, returning her arm to around her middle and giving her a smile that she hoped was somewhat reassuring. “We can try to get some sleep. I mean, we should try to ignore her as much as we possibly can, right? That way she might get bored of looking for a reaction and just move on to the afterlife. It might be kinda stupid, but it just might work, at least until we can get ahold of Bis.”

Lapis sighed heavily and shook her head, but managed to give Peridot a weak smile, which the younger of the two was barely comforted by. She wished that she could help her girlfriend, but it seemed that wasn’t going to be easy - maybe not even possible. “I don’t think she’d get bored in one night if she didn’t for a year,” the bluenette spoke tiredly, but took the blonde’s hair gently and led her into the house. “But sure, let’s go try to sleep. I don’t think I’ll be able to get any, though.”

“As long as we try.”

* * *

 

Lapis did, to her credit, make an effort to get some sleep. She laid down in bed, listening to Peridot’s soft and steady breathing, switching between staring at the ceiling and staring at her girlfriend’s sleeping and peaceful face. She tried laying still, she tried tossing and turning, she tried laying on her face and making an attempt to strangle herself into sleep. None of them worked; her brain was too busy working in overdrive, thinking endlessly about all of the things that could go either wrong or right overnight. Thinking that she might be alone again when the night was over. Thinking that maybe she could finally get through to Jasper and make her relax.

She hoped desperately that the former would never come to light, and seriously doubted that the latter was even possible.

Altogether, she seriously doubted that all of this thinking was good for her - she needed to get up, she needed to try to do something productive if she had any hope of relaxing. Moving away from Peridot, though, was something she didn’t want to do; she didn’t want to leave her alone in one room when there was a probability that an angry ghost could show up.

So Lapis rose to her feet, stretched her joints and muscles and listened to them crack and pop as they adjusted to no longer being all in one position. Maybe she was getting old; only in her mid twenties and already feeling forty. A small, bitter laugh left her, and she froze and watched carefully to make sure that Peridot wasn’t woken up by the noise that she had just made. The younger woman was still fast asleep, so she felt fine about walking over to the window and looking out at the October night.

Breezes ruffled the drying leaves on the trees and scattered those that had fallen across the grass of the lawn. Things seemed calm enough outside and in the house.

Until the temperature in the room suddenly dropped, and a shiver ran up Lapis’ spine as she sensed a being of anger and jealousy and bitterness behind her. The paranormal investigator’s breath hitched in her throat, and she slowly turned around to face the massive shape of her dead ex that she knew that she would find behind her. Cold blue eyes glared into passionate yellow, anger and frustration bubbling up in Lapis’ chest.

“Hello, Jasper.”


	7. Chapter 7

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> The final confrontation.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> i'm starting to rlly hate this fic lmao oops

Jasper stood, tall and intimidating, just next to the bed. Lapis inched forward ever so slightly to make sure that she was closer to Peridot than the ghost was. She did not waver, and she did not flinch; she wasn’t sure what was filling her with cold, hard determination at the moment, but whatever was, she hoped that it wouldn’t go away - because for the moment, Jasper, was being rather calm, but if she were to panic or show weakness that calm would give way to a stormy sea of rage. She knew that. She had experienced that firsthand. She wasn’t about to go through it again.

“Listen, I’m not going to run away from you or try to exorcise you as long as you don’t try to hurt me or Peridot. I just… want to talk to you.” She was impressed with her own ability to keep her voice from wavering in the face of somebody that had terrified and controlled her for so long and was now more impossible to fight back against than ever before. “As long as you remain calm and don’t hurt anybody, I’ll return the favor. Are you willing to just sit down and talk to me?”

Jasper seemed to hesitate momentarily, bright yellow eyes squinting at Lapis and studying her closely and surprisingly calmly before the massive spirit nodded slowly and backed away from the bed with what the human assumed were meant to be her hands raised in a gesture of peace. Pulse pounding in her ears, Lapis stepped around the bed in order to get a little closer to her dead ex, giving a rather intense shiver when she felt the sharp drop in air temperature that became noticeable the moment she stepped foot in the poltergeist’s space. She wondered, for a moment, if she was brave or just stupid.

Maybe she was a little bit of both, if that was possible.

“Listen,” Lapis spoke with a heavy sigh, very aware of how tired and run down she looked watching the unwavering gaze of Jasper’s dead eyes. “I don’t understand why you never moved on after I left you. I don’t understand why you decided that the only way out of whatever you were dealing with was death. And I’m not going to pester you about it. But aren’t you tired of all this? Don’t you think that it would be best to just… stop? Give up the chase and get the peace you were apparently so desperate to obtain that you went to desperate measures to get it?”

Jasper seemed to consider that momentarily, very unnervingly silent and stock-still. Lapis was beginning to fear that she wasn’t going to speak again, and when she did it was enough to make the short human jump. “I wasn’t seeking peace when I did it. I wanted to figure out some way to find you. We were meant for each other, Lapis - you changed me. You changed some part of me. I don’t know if it was my love for you, or you hurting me with your words, or… the miscarriage. But you changed me.”

There was a moment where Lapis did not respond, not even wanting to grace that with words, but eventually she decided that she probably needed to. “Jasper, if I did change you, it wasn’t good. I know that you changed me, and it wasn’t exactly for the better. I can’t walk anywhere without being paranoid because of you anymore. I have trouble accepting that my girlfriend loves me and isn’t going to hurt me because of you. I blame myself for everything. I have nightmares about you. Our relationship wasn’t  _ good, _ and if I really hurt you so badly, you need to just move on from me.”

Yellow eyes narrowed into a glare, and Lapis fought the urge to back away quickly to stand her ground. She was honestly afraid that she just sentenced herself to a beating again because she couldn’t just keep her mouth shut and  _ obey, _ but she reminded herself that Jasper did not own her, that she was a professional and she knew ways to get rid of ghosts in a pinch (albeit at the cost of causing damage to herself). She could handle this.

“I need you, and you need me. Nobody else can handle your bullshit. Do you think poor Peridot is going to be able to stay with you when you start being an asshole again?” Jasper laughed slightly, but it was more of a bitter laugh than an amused one. Every beat of Lapis’ heart was beginning to become painful; she was right, wasn’t she? “No, she’s going to be overwhelmed and you’ll leave her and get a restraining order and play the victim. That’s what you do, Lazuli, and I’m the only one that’s ever going to be willing to fight for you so you don’t die alone.”

“You abused me, Jasper. You raped me, you beat me, you manipulated me, and you’re still trying to control me years after our relationship ended.” Lapis sucked in a deep breath, and clenched her fists to try and hide that her hands were shaking. She supposed this was her fault for not just being honest and explaining why their relationship was over - for not explaining why she was trying to shake off Jasper like a bad headache. She supposed she had been afraid that the reaction would be violent.

Just like she was now.

“If either of us was the bad one, it’s you!” Jasper’s voice came off as a shout, and despite herself Lapis flinched - and immediately cursed herself for that, because she knew that it gave her ex power over her. “Stop pinning all of the blame for everything on me. I wouldn’t have acted the way I did if you just got your head out of your ass and  _ listened _ sometimes. You brought everything upon yourself by never communicating with me and destroying every attempt we ever had to be a normal couple.”

“That was not  _ my _ fault, stop acting like it was!”

She noticed their argument becoming louder before she could completely throw a temper tantrum, and with a weighted breath Lapis forced herself to try and relax, unclenching her fists and smoothing over her nightgown despite the complete lack of wrinkles. Heart still pounding in her chest, she stared Jasper down, noticing with no small amount of nerves that the ghost seemed to be even more annoyed with her than she had been before. That was ever so slightly terrifying, considering she was a spirit of rage to begin with and had always been quite the terror for as long as Lapis had known her.

“Listen. Maybe it was both of our faults. Maybe we should stop throwing the blame at each other and just accept that we were, and still are, mutually bad for each other.” A bitter laugh left her, startling even Lapis herself. “If you’re still coming after me even in death, that alone should be the proof. We’re keeping each other from moving on and finding something better. So maybe you should stop fixating on the relationship and I should stop internally blaming myself for everything.”

The angry gold of Jasper’s eyes narrowed, and she quickly moved forward. Lapis flinched back, but felt a white hot and strong grip grab her wrists and wrench her a little closer to the ghost. There was no point in trying to fight her and free herself, so she just stared at her ex with wide eyes. She couldn’t deny the absolute terror that was beginning to consume her; both the natural fear of the supernatural and her own fear of the massive spirit were combining into a cocktail or horror that she hoped to God she would never be able to recreate. Still, her gaze flitted to Peridot, and she was vaguely relieved that she was the one being physically attacked and not her girlfriend.

“No, you fucking listen to me, Lapis Lazuli,” the ghost spoke in a growl, grabbing Lapis’ chin when she tried to look away and forcing her to make eye contact. “We’re the only ones who can handle each other. Peridot can’t. The afterlife can’t. There’s no way we can be this affected by our relationship and  _ not _ be meant for each other.” That was shitty logic, but she wasn’t about to argue with a ghost that could easily snap her neck at any moment. “And that aside, I  _ love _ you.”

Lapis tried to wrench back and free herself, but found that the ghost’s grip was steadfast and unwavering. Despite her heart hammering in her chest and everything in her mind telling her to just  _ shut the fuck up, _ she glared daggers at Jasper and spat out a response with as much venom and hatred in her voice as she could possibly muster when she just felt like shaking and crying. “Yeah, well, I  _ don’t _ love you. I haven’t for years. Now let. Me. Go.”

A look of hurt passed over the ghost’s eyes for a split second, but it didn’t last long before she shoved Lapis back. The human landed on her back with a soft grunt, her head crashing against the ground and creating a headache that had two different sources. With a scowl, she pulled herself up so that she was supported on her elbows and shot a cold glare at her ex. “It’s not reasonable to expect me to come running back to you after everything that we both went through, even if I did have feelings for you. I’ve moved on, Jasper, and I think it’s time for you to, too.”

“Don’t tell me what I am and am not allowed to feel!” Jasper growled, and Lapis could tell that if she still had them she would have clenched her fists. “I don’t care if you love me or not, Lazuli. We can be happy together. You can learn how to care about me again. It’ll be  _ better _ this time!” She was beginning to sound desperate, and before Lapis could move away, she captured one of her hands in both of her massive shadowy ones. “Come on, I know you want to. It’d be better for both of us - we can have so much more with whatever comes next than we could have here. You just need to join me. I know you’ve wanted to for a long time. I know you.”

“You don’t know me at all!” Lapis tried to avoid raising her voice, not wanting to shout and lose her more reasonable stance. “I’m nothing like you. I’m not going to kill myself just so I can go running back into your arms. I wanted to do it before to  _ escape _ you.” She glanced over at Peridot, still sleeping peacefully, and reminded herself that she was protecting her girlfriend before taking a deep breath. “I’m happy now. I’m in a better place than I was before. If you love me like you say you do, just get out of my house and move on. Accept that I’m happy without you.”

Jasper stared her down for several seconds, and Lapis avoided the urge to squirm under her searching glare. The ghost seemed to consider her words for a moment, even glancing at the bedroom door, but took several steps forward instead. The human couldn’t help but scramble backwards, more than a little terrified by the sight of a massive shadow that she knew to be her ex approaching her, but was surprised when Jasper stopped by the bed instead.

“I can’t. I need you back. And if I have to hurt someone to do that, I will.” She spoke in a voice that sounded much more tired than Lapis was initially expecting. There was a moment of denial, then, telling herself that the ghost wouldn’t do that, that she would just keep it between them, but that dissolved rather easily when the spirit grabbed hold of Peridot’s neck and lifted her off the bed, startling the blonde into a state of awareness.

“No!” Lapis shrieked, throwing herself without hesitation at her girlfriend and freeing her far easier than expected from the poltergeist’s grip. The two of them went crashing back down to the bed, and Peridot clung to Lapis like a baby koala, apparently too startled and terrified to speak or completely react. The older of the two couldn’t say that she blamed her. “Leave her out of this, Jasper. This is between you and I, and she has nothing to do with any of my decisions.”

She could almost  _ feel _ the jealousy radiating off of Jasper, and even if she didn’t she was well aware that was probably what she was feeling. Lapis certainly didn’t want to empathize with the massive ghost, but she could imagine how it felt to be obsessed with the idea of being with somebody only to see them refusing your advances and clinging to somebody else. She would never admit it, but for just a moment she almost understood how her ex felt - but it didn’t last long, because for Christ’s sake, that was no excuse to hurt somebody. There was never an excuse to hurt somebody outside of self defense situations, and fuck, Lapis was a mess of a person but at least she was good enough to see that.

“She has everything to do with the mistake you’re making! She took your heart away from me, and now she’s blinding you!” Jasper’s voice was becoming more and more of a growl as she became angrier, and if Lapis was being honest, that was probably the scariest thing she had dealt with so far in this whole debacle. Being actively attacked was one thing, but this dread was another. “You left me for her, and you’re staying away from me because of her.”

“It took her a year after she broke up with you for us to start dating! She didn’t leave you for me, she left you because she knew that your relationship was going to kill her!” Peridot piped up, though she still clung steadfast to Lapis’ back - the older woman silently put a hand against one of hers. “She still gets scared when I do anything at all that reminds her of you! So stop trying to blame your inability to be a decent and loving romantic partner than you could ever hope to be!”

Rage began to build in Jasper, taking the form of dark wisps of shadows expanding from her body and her yellow eyes beginning to gain an expression that Lapis knew all too well. She felt more powerless than ever before, because hell - she could fight against a live Jasper, as much of a death sentence as that would be, but there was no way she could fight a ghost. “I don’t think I asked you to speak, runt,” the poltergeist growled, and Peridot could only squeak and hide her face behind Lapis.

Lapis’ priority was protecting Peridot. That was the only thing that really mattered to her now, and so it was with as much bravery as she could muster that she scooted forward slightly and got up to her knees to try and face the ghost a little bit better. Admittedly, it probably didn’t look very threatening, but she didn’t particularly care - she just wanted to get this entire debacle to the point that it was  _ finished, _ for her girlfriend’s sake more than her own. “Just leave her out of this. She’s right - she had absolutely nothing to do with my decision to break up with you. If you attack her again, I will exorcise you on the spot without hesitating even a moment.”

“If you could do that, you would have already,  _ Lapis.” _ The way her name was spoken was in a demeaning hiss, and the human glared coldly in response. “There’s something stopping you from doing it if you can, so I’m calling your bluff. You can’t threaten me into silence. I don’t have any laws holding me back, and I certainly don’t have to listen to what  _ you _ have to say. I know what I came for, and I’m going to get it, whether you like it or not.”

“I have something to say about it when I’m what you want. I have something to say about it when you want to take my autonomy and individuality and life away again.”

Jasper didn’t grace that with a response, choosing instead to hover over to the dresser of the room and glance at the pictures that sat there. Lapis was a little insulted by the way that her ex ignored her, but that melted away rather quickly when Peridot leaned over to whisper in her ear. “What is she doing? Why is she doing this?” she asked in a voice made high pitched by stress.

Lapis only shrugged in response, and was about to say something when she noticed that Jasper had turned around to acknowledge her again. “You know that you can’t be around to protect her all the time, Lazuli. I will wait until you have to turn away to give each other privacy, and I will get rid of her so that there’s nothing left keeping you tethered to this life. You’ll  _ have _ to join me in death.” She seemed so pleased with herself for this realization, and Lapis didn’t dare point out that she would have Steven after that, her parents, her friends.

But she could sense the truth in Jasper’s words. She didn’t doubt, not for a second, that the ghost would not have any qualms whatsoever about killing Peridot in her sick and twisted determination to get Lapis to kill herself and join her in whatever the hell came next. The paranormal investigator thought for several moments about what to do, until the gears in her head settled into place.

She had a plan.

“Trust me,” she whispered back in Peridot’s ear, before sliding out of bed and giving a single grim nod. “Okay. Let’s go.”

* * *

 

The wind bit and howled, a little bit too cold even for an October night, and to say that Lapis was fearful would be an understatement. The weather matched her mood rather easily; this was the most risky thing she had ever done on the job, and she was sure that Peridot was going to be very, very upset when she found out what she had pulled off.  _ If _ she ever found out. The paranormal investigator had already decided that she wasn’t going to say a word that might imply that she just faked her own suicide in the most dangerous manner that had ever been possible.

Ghosts were not the most intelligent creatures. They could be tricked into thinking that their tether was destroyed, especially if it was a human being. If that were to happen, then Jasper would be forced to detach herself from Lapis, and exorcising her would get a lot less dangerous for anybody that was still alive. However, she had to make it  _ really _ convincing… and in light of that, she had decided to bring Jasper to a nearby fatally tall cell phone tower and throw herself off of it less than halfway up, trying to land in a way that would break a couple bones and give her a concussion at worst. 

It scared her a little that this was something she had genuinely wanted to do at some point, because now that she didn’t really want to die it was terrifying as shit.

But, hey, if she fucked up, at least Peridot would be safe. Thinking of her girlfriend was enough to give her the strength to face death head on. Thinking of something  _ happening _ to her was enough to make her angry enough to even have the strength. Even if she ended up dying, she would get rid of the ghost anyway, and Peridot wouldn’t be in danger anymore.

Climbing was difficult with the wind, and her grip on the latter made her knuckles turn white as she climbed up the tower. Every strong gust was an attempt to push her off, and several times Lapis seriously considered just changing her mind and going with the exorcism that was dangerous. Sure, getting rid of a poltergeist without a tether was easier, but it wasn’t worth this - except it was, and she knew in the back of her mind that dying like this would be less painful.

It didn’t take her long to be satisfied with the height gained, and her breath was shaky as she looked down at the ground so far beneath her. She prayed that she had measured right, because she was terrible at judging distances and her aim had been to get to a height that  _ looked _ like it would kill her but really wouldn’t. She was only vaguely aware of her shaking hands and the terrified breaths that puffed out from her lungs, and glancing at the massive shadow behind her did absolutely nothing to reassure her.

_ This is going to be fine, _ she tried to convince herself, wringing her hands together as she stared at the ground and took deep breaths.  _ Just a moment of terror and maybe a broken bone, and then you can get rid of Jasper forever. Then you can get her out of this realm and never have to worry about her again. Just jump off the damn tower, Lazuli.  _ She squeezed her eyes shut and, repeating  _ it’s going to be okay _ in her mind like a battle cry, Lapis Lazuli let go of the latter and fell to the ground.

Her descent seemed to take forever, and she kept her eyes on the spot where she had been and the smug ghost to try and measure how far she was falling. There was the terror that she would fail and be gravely injured or even die, of course, but this was… peaceful. The urge to scream that she had been expecting never came, and in her mind she was confident that everything was going to turn out just fine, that she would be able to be happy with Peridot now.

She hit the ground with a sickening  _ crack, _ and everything went black.

* * *

 

When Lapis emerged back into consciousness, the first thing she was aware of was that she was alone, and that she was still outside. She blinked her dark eyes opened and looked to the stars, and a shadow did not obscure her vision; she couldn’t even feel Jasper’s dark and angry presence with her as she lay on the ground and breathed the chilly night air. She was sure that she hadn’t been unconscious long, but it must have been long enough to convince her dead ex that she had died.

She groaned slightly as she attempted to push herself into a sitting position, but yelped with pain at the stabbing agony that ran up her right arm and fell back down to lay on her back. She was still pretty dazed from the fall, but she could piece together in her mind that she had broken her arm in the fall; she knew that she should be grateful that was the  _ only _ thing broken and that she hadn’t lost her  _ life, _ but she couldn’t help but give a deep groan of annoyance at the inconvenience and of pain before she somehow managed to roll herself to her feet.

She thought for a moment about just walking back to the house, but the pulsing pain in her arm told her that no, she probably ought to get a ride to the hospital or something instead. Her head swimming, Lapis walked to the edge of the tower where she had left her cell phone, and with a little bit of effort managed to focus enough to press and hold the key to call Peridot off her speed dial. The thought that she might have a concussion swam through her head momentarily, but for now she ignored it. She had other things to worry about.

The phone rang once, twice, and she had Peridot’s panicked voice yelling at her from a few blocks away. “Where the fuck are you?” her girlfriend demanded, sounding scared enough that Lapis felt bad about worrying her. “You’ve been gone for a half an hour, and I’m worried sick. You told me to trust you, but that’s a little bit hard when you tell a ghost you’re going to go kill yourself and then completely neglect to tell me what’s going on! What were you  _ thinking, _ Lapis motherfucking Lazuli?!”

“Stop yelling at me, I think I have a concussion,” Lapis groaned, stretching as well as she could with a heavy head and a broken arm. She winced at her slightly slurred speech, but didn’t pause before continuing to talk. “I kinda jumped off the cell phone tower by our house? But I did it from a height that I was sure wasn’t gonna hurt me too bad, just break something and knock me out. And… it did that, I think? I’m alive, but my arm is broken, but Jasper left so we should be able to exorcise her now.” She hesitated momentarily, then voiced her request quietly. “Could you come pick me up maybe?”

She heard Peridot sigh heavily in a way that might have sounded annoyed and angry to anyone else, but Lapis knew her well enough that the soft relief and worry underneath it was audible easily. “I’m on my way, try not to jump off any more fucking towers,” the younger of the two demanded in a snippish tone, and the line was cut as she hung up. Lapis stared at her phone momentarily before pocketing it again and laying back down on the ground.

It didn’t take long for Peridot to get to the tower, maybe five minutes at most, and Lapis wasn’t really aware of her presence until she had been hugged tightly from behind. She gently put the hand attached to her good arm on Peridot’s upper arm, and guilt completely consumed her as the younger of the two rested her head against her shoulder. “You’re an idiot,” the blonde whined in a voice that sounded close to tears, and Lapis herself had to swallow thickly to avoid bursting into sobs herself. She did feel bad about what she had just put her girlfriend through.

She couldn’t imagine if the same thing had been done to her.

“I’m really sorry, Dottie,” Lapis murmured as softly as she could, twisting her head to press a light kiss against Peridot’s forehead, and getting a small glance at the face of the love of her life - her face was screwed up as though she was about to cry. “I promise, I’ll never do anything that stupid again. I just wanted to make sure we could take care of all this. I didn’t want us to try an exorcism that could go horribly wrong.”

Peridot didn’t respond for a while, apparently just wanting to hold Lapis as closely as possible, and Lapis allowed her to without complaint. She had really pulled a dick move, she was realizing, and now that she actually knew how Peridot felt about it the only thought passing through her head was how utterly stupid she had been to think that was a good idea. She should have just… gone with the riskier exorcism instead of leaving her girlfriend without an explanation and then proceeding to jump off of a fucking cell phone tower. She had really screwed up, and now she was beating herself up over it.

“We should get you to the hospital,” the younger woman spoke softly, all of the heat gone from her voice as she rose to her feet and dragged Lapis along with her. She knew her girlfriend well enough to sense some hesitation behind her movements, as if she hadn’t wanted to break away, and to be honest,  _ she _ hadn’t either. But they needed to get out of an open field before something went even more wrong than most of this night had, and though getting medical assistance for her broken limb and concussion sounded very, very necessary and attractive, the older of the two shook her head.

“No time. We need to get back to the house and set up everything we need for the exorcism. We can go to the hospital after, we need to get rid of this entire problem before Jasper figures out that I never showed up in the next dimension to let her escort me to the afterlife.” Maybe she wasn’t thinking a hundred percent straight, but she really got the sense that she needed to hurry up and take care of what would turn into an even bigger issue if it was left to fester and grow. “It wouldn’t be hard for her to reattach herself to me. I’ve seen it happen before, and I know it can happen again.”

She watched Peridot carefully as the blonde bit her lower lip and looked to her car, in the direction of their house, and in the direction of the nearest hospital. She could almost see and hear the gears turning in her girlfriend’s head - she was probably analyzing the situation, the fact that Lapis’ injuries weren’t fatal, the intensity of Jasper’s presence and the fact that she was far from a patient woman who would probably make sure that the job was taken care of next time.

“... Okay,” Peridot finally responded after thinking about it for several long seconds, apparently still fairly reluctant judging by the look that Lapis was receiving. “Just promise me you’ll never do anything stupid like this again, please. I was so worried about you, and considering how suicidal you were when you first moved in with me, you can understand why I freaked out a little, right?” She sucked in a deep breath, and again Lapis felt guilt for worrying her.

“I promise,” she spoke, her voice soft and loving.

She could judge from the expression on Peridot’s face that she didn’t quite believe her, but regardless, she avoided saying anything more and just led Lapis to the truck. As the older of the two paranormal investigators buckled herself in, she kept her weary gaze on Peridot, the way that she was biting her lower lip as she often did when she was nervous and the strong grip on her steering wheel - she looked like she had been through hell and back through the part of the night Lapis had been gone, and honestly, she supposed that she probably had been.

Though she knew it had probably been necessary to avoid her own untimely death in another and much more painful way, but still Lapis felt like a despicable human being.

* * *

 

“I can’t believe we still use salt circles. She’s not even a demon,” Peridot complained in a groan as she spread sea salt on the ground around her seated girlfriend. Lapis watched her with an eyebrow raised, and she knew that she wasn’t going to respond because they had been over the reasoning several times - Jasper was a dark and powerful spirit, demon or not, and the two paranormal investigators would need as much protection as they could get from her. Salt circles just happened to be the most convenient form of protection, considering they always kept sea salt tucked away.

As Lapis quietly cast the circle, Peridot looked around at their small kitchen - it certainly wasn’t anything that looked like it should be haunted, especially considering the only resident before them had been an older couple that retired to Florida before either of them could die. Nobody had the opportunity to haunt the house before Jasper; for the most part, their suburbs were normal and the area had very little crime. In fact, Peridot couldn’t think of any recent deaths on the block, period. Most people died in the hospital, and those that didn’t were gentle souls that wouldn’t haunt due to their ninety year lifespan.

“Okay,” the older of the two spoke up with a firm nod when she had finished, pulling out the small book that she kept in the pocket of her hoodie and leafing through the pages. “I think I’m just going to try to get rid of her. I would shield the house, but knowing her, she’s just going to wait outside for me at every chance she gets.”

Peridot was nervous. Exorcisms were tricky for the completely able, let alone with one arm out of commission. Even though Lapis was no longer Jasper’s tether, this was still incredibly dangerous for her, as her trauma and mental health issues plagued her soul and made her more vulnerable; not to mention she was hardly a trained professional. They always, always relied on their friend Bismuth to handle the actual cleansings, because she had a strong spirit and was a trained professional nearly three decades older than either of them; in a pinch, though, Lapis was the one that knew how.

“So, can we do this from a distance, or do we need to wait for her to actually show up once she realizes you’re not dead?” Peridot asked, her voice soft and terrified. Neither of them had ever needed to carry through an exorcism before - they had never encountered a ghost so dangerous that they couldn’t wait for a time when Bismuth was in her office and could come down. “Because I’m not sure if it’s a good idea to sit around and wait. She could never realize it at all.”

“We can do it from a distance, but she’s going to notice that she’s being exorcised and come right to us. It’s not exactly a painless experience - she probably could’ve spared herself the trouble and just moved on when I asked her to, but Jasper has never been reasonable and will be a thorn in my side even after she’s gone.” Lapis looked and sounded tired, holding her injured arm against her chest and dark circles under her eyes. Peridot felt bad for her, and desperately wanted to help her… but she knew that it would be unreasonable to try and do anything at the moment.

“Okay. What do you want me to do?” the blonde asked, bouncing on her heels ever so slightly and itching to do something - anything - to help. Too much of this situation was on Lapis; it was unfair to her, it was painful to watch, and Peridot just wanted to take even the littlest bit of the burden off of the older girl’s shoulders, even if it meant throwing herself into harm’s way and trying to distract an angry ghost that would probably be fighting as hard as possible to avoid being banished to whatever came next - and the concern and tiredness in Lapis’ eyes only made that resolve stronger.

“If Jasper comes through and you aren’t putting yourself in immediate danger by doing so, distract her.” The request was quick and simple, and before Peridot could even say anything in response, the older of the two was talking again. “I’m going to get started now. Try not to distract me unless you think that one of us is going to die.”

Peridot nodded solemnly, and Lapis began to chant something in a different language, reading from the book she had pulled from her pocket.

For several seconds, nothing really happened, and Peridot found herself wondering if anything was really working - struggling to avoid the urge to pace around the room and tapping her foot impatiently, glancing around to see if anything was changing. She wrung her hands together and waited, eventually deciding to just focus on Lapis’ face and see if she could find any change in the weary concentration that had completely taken over her features and made her look so much older than just some foolish young person in her twenties. For a second, Peridot considered changing jobs to something that might be a little less taxing than this.

Before she could finish that thought, though, the lights in their cramped kitchen began to flicker, and the temperature dropped by several degrees. No shadow showed itself, but Peridot knew that this meant that Jasper had shown herself and was trying to avoid being seen despite the rage that was disrupting the energy in the house and making the fact that something eerier than just a human was present. The blonde’s heart began hammering in her chest, but Lapis’ resolve and concentration was unwavering, so she gathered up enough courage to stand up straight and look around for the ghost.

She didn’t need to look at all, it turned out, because for the second time that night she felt a big and strong hand close around her neck. The ghost’s lack of mass made it so that she couldn’t actually choke her, and Peridot knew that any suffocation she actually felt was just her mind playing tricks on her, so she managed to keep her breathing slow and steady even as she was lifted off the ground. Jasper materialized before her, and the blonde was acutely aware that she was purposefully trying to scare Lapis in a show of her full strength and powerful.

That was terrifying, sure, but Peridot knew that she was the only thing present that could be used to “motivate” her girlfriend into wavering from her chanting, and that she wouldn’t actually be killed lest Jasper lose everything she needed to manipulate Lapis. That disgusted her, but it gave her the courage she needed to stay calm and still - and give an affirming nod when the older of the two looked up with wide eyes and her voice faltered. “Keep going,” she mouthed simply.

Lapis seemed to hesitate, but did look down at her book and continued reading out loud. The hand around Peridot’s throat suddenly began feeling white hot, and she struggled to hold down a whine of pain - when her girlfriend didn’t react whatsoever, the ghost let out an aggravated growl and dropped Peridot on the ground in favor of walking up to Lapis and kneeling next to her. The blonde reacted immediately, rushing over to try and make it to her girlfriend’s side, but the ghost pushed her back almost as soon as she made her way over.

“You’ll never get rid of me, and making me angry isn’t going to make any of this any easier on you,” Jasper growled, and when Lapis continued talking without being perturbed she only seemed to get angrier. “I’m going to tell Peridot everything you did wrong during our relationship if you don’t stop. I’ll ruin what you have now. You’ll have no chance of ever being happy.”

_ That _ made Lapis pause again, and Peridot couldn’t think of anything that would make her love Lapis any less, so it frustrated her more than a little bit. “Keep going, Lapis. Don’t listen to her,” she demanded, feeling quite accomplished when her voice came out strong and unshaking.

There was a moment of silence between the three beings before Jasper suddenly grabbed hold of Peridot’s shoulders and got uncomfortably close to her face, speaking in a low growl. “Listen to me. Lapis is just about the worst person you could ever date. She’s quick tempered, she’s mean. The only reason I ever hit her was because she accused me of brutal things and never said anything nice. She wants control, and she wants to hold you down - that’s all she’s ever wanted, to fight and drag down anybody that tries to save her. She sabotages any attempts to just be a normal family. We were going to have a kid, and she miscarried, and I have reason to believe she did it on purpose. I’ve known her longer than you have, and I dated her longer than you have. Don’t you think I know her better than you do?”

Peridot didn’t know how to respond for several seconds, and considering Jasper was beginning to fade from sight and Lapis hadn’t faltered, she assumed that the older of the two hadn’t heard a word that the ghost spoke. “I think I can come to that conclusion by myself,” she responded eventually, glaring darkly at Jasper and trying to pull away.

“You can’t! I’m the only one that can handle her! You both would be better off if you just left her to be with me!” Jasper seemed to be getting more and more enraged the more time went on, her tone becoming desperate as she realized that she didn’t have much time left. “You’ll be sorry! I know you will! You’re going to spend the rest of your life wishing that you had just let me have her!”

“No, I won’t,” Peridot spoke coldly, reaching for the nearby windowsill and grabbing the remaining sea salt in the container. Jasper made an effort to grab around her neck again, but before she could, the blonde scattered salt at her and startled her. The ghost gave a haunting scream of agony and frustration, and within moments, where the shadow of Jasper had been, there was nothing but a dark mist that evaporated into the air quickly, leaving only the two lovebirds and sweet, sweet silence in the room - and for several seconds, neither did anything, only staring at each other.

And then Peridot let out a laugh and rushed at Lapis, scooping her up into a massive hug and earning laughter and a tight squeeze in response.

It was all going to be okay.

**Author's Note:**

> comments would be v much appreciated, they motivate me!


End file.
